Droga5 and Toyota part company – Dentsu set to open shop in Australia early 2011 to join ad roster

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Screen shot 2010-11-23 at 5.29.27 AM.jpgCB/SMH joint exclusive – Only three months after joining Toyota’s coveted roster, alongside incumbents Saatchi & Saatchi, Mojo and Oddfellows, Droga5 Sydney has parted ways with the car giant in the wake of plans for Dentsu to officially enter the Australian marketplace.

Dentsu will take over duties on Yaris, although it’s unclear what other areas of the car maker’s marketing they will be involved with.

[Interestingly, CB hears Dentsu Canada – which ousted Saatchi’s from the Lexus business in Canada – recently came up against Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney in a secret pitch for a slice of the Australian Lexus business, which Saatchi’s retained.]

Up to now, Dentsu has been the car maker’s lead agency in Japan and the lead agency for Lexus in Canada. However, as early as January 2011, the Japanese agency may be officially opening an office in Sydney.

Whether it will be a start-up operation or a takeover of an Australian agency remains unclear at this stage. If it’s the latter, perhaps Oddfellows might be their way in? [CB hears they’ve already had talks but the stumbling block appears to be Oddfellows’ reluctance to surrender more than 50% of their ownership].

Thumbnail image for David Nobay.jpgDavid Nobay (left), Droga5’s creative chairman told CB: “This is frustrating, obviously, as several of us here have a long and good relationship with Toyota, but we’ve also been around long enough to recognize that these things happen. For me, it’s a case of being in the right place, at the wrong time. Toyota’s a formidable brand, at an exciting, challenging time in their life, and I wish them all the best, genuinely.”

Droga5’s split with Toyota comes just four days after news of the sudden resignation of divisional manager national marketing Peter Webster, with no reason given for his departure. As previously reported, CB believes there was a major confrontation between Webster and Toyota Australia management late last week over an [unspecified] issue that led to his departure.

Could the political decision to appoint Dentsu – which has had mixed success in markets outside Japan – have been that issue? For example, Dentsu bought CDP, once the UK’s most glamorous and influential ad agency, in the mid 90s and eventually killed off the CDP name in 2008 when it was rebranded Dentsu London.

The last time Dentsu had a presence in Australia was when it had ownership of BAM in the 90s, which eventually became part of Bcom3. [In early 2000, the merger of the Leo Burnett and DMB&B groups–followed by a significant minority investment from Dentsu–created Bcom3]. In Australia, BAM and Pure D’Arcy was merged to form D’Arcy which folded into Leo Burnett after Leo parent Publicis took over Bcom3.