Wieden+Kennedy grabs Ford globally
Wieden+Kennedy has been appointed Ford’s global ad agency after sharing the business with Omnicom’s BBDO for the past four years.
W+K was appointed to handle “special projects” when the creative account moved out of WPP but rapidly rose to the fore with its ‘Built Ford Proud’ campaign featuring Bryan Cranston.
Apparently this was one of several ideas presented to Ford for review but one of the senior execs said he needed a campaign right now and off they went. One can only imagine what BBDO felt like when this giant piece of business began to be filched from under their nose.
Now Ford has confirmed that W+K will work on the account globally – a great opportunity for W+K London which made its name all those years ago on Honda – with BBDO handling CRM and WPP media and so-called activation. There’s a lot of the latter in Ford’s world due top its vast dealer network.
“The Ford brand is streamlining its global marketing business under one creative agency to drive brand consistency globally and provide greater operational efficiencies.”
AMV BBDO in the UK, which has produced tow big campaigns for Ford, misses out.