BMW Group Australia reappoints incumbent Ogilvy following closed four-way pitch
BMW Group Australia has reappointed incumbent creative agency Ogilvy to its marketing and advertising account, continuing a long standing relationship with Ogilvy, with the agency originally appointed to the business over 20 years ago.
The decision follows a closed four-way pitch which began in September for both the BMW and MINI brands. The scope of work includes ATL, BTL, Digital and POS for both the BMW and MINI brands and their dealer network.
According to Stuart Jaffray (pictured below), general manager of marketing at BMW, all four proposals were impressive: “We respect and appreciate the efforts that were put in by the four pitching agencies, and it was a tough decision for us to make. Ultimately we have chosen the agency that provided the most comprehensive and innovative response to our briefs.
“We want to be challenged by our agency and, with the benefit of their recent acquisition of Bullseye, Ogilvy were able to present thinking that genuinely challenged us – thinking that we believe will push the BMW brand forwards in the Australian market.
“2015 will be a very exciting year for BMW with a number of new Ultimate Driving Machines entering the market. We look forward to taking these to market with Ogilvy,” Jaffray said.
Kai Bruesewitz, general manager for MINI Australia agreed: “It was a difficult decision process because of the excellent quality of the responses. In the end, Ogilvy’s strategic approach to bring MINI to the next level and position it in the market as the unrivalled choice when it comes to Premium small cars has convinced us unanimously.
“We can’t wait for the comprehensive launch campaign in early 2015 for the first-ever MINI 5-door Hatch which will manifest the first highlight of this renewed successful collaboration and partnership,” Bruesewitz said.
11 Comments
When clients go out to pitch, then stick with the incumbent, it’s usually (but not always) just an exercise in flexing muscles to bend an agency to their will – they were never going to leave in the first place.
Personally I find it disgusting that a client can get that many people to put in that much time and effort and expense instead of just being a grown up and sorting out their problems with the incumbent in the first place.
I second that, Wall Writing. This process needs looking at.
We pitched for the business. We lost. It happens.
BMW needs more budget!
“We want to be challenged by our agency ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF3WxKnPWfI
yep, so challenging…..
Have a look at how many times BMW hae pitched media and creative over the last X years – around 5 times in total. How many times have they changed agencies? Creative or media? none. It’s there right – just uses up a lot of peoples time.
Well Mister, you should have refused to pitch. And so should have all agencies involved, specially those who participated in the last two pitches. BMW is a freaking circus. And they never had any intention of leaving Ogilvy. Never, ever. I know of at least two agencies that have been taken through the ringer twice and they keep coming back for more. What about, NO, we won’t be pitching this time, thank you very much? Fools!
There’s another angle to consider beyond the putting the incumbent agency in a compliant position. The brand receives a huge raft of unpaid concept and strategic development. As a senior creative who worked on this pitch (no longer with the pitching agency) I will watch with some interest to see if any ideas presented by the group I was involved with comes to market.
You don’t have to pitch.
When the incumbent retains the account it means the pitch was rigged.
When the incumbent loses the account they were screwed.
If you pitch and win it’s great.
If you pitch and lose it’s crap.
That’s life.
If you don’t like it go and write your novel or screenplay.
Good luck pitching that masterpiece to a publisher or production company.
We perpetuate this by agreeing to pitch for tyre-kicking clients that waste everybody’s time and effort. When agency leaders start showing some real leadership, balls and self-respect rather than perpetually racing to the bottom against each other, shithouse clients like this one will stop stuffing everyone around.
Yep, I agree, losing is part of pitching. No use crying about it. But some clients are serial pitchers, and they use the process as nothing more than a big stick.
We’ve just been through a mad pitch season – won a few, lost a few. It’s fun, in a back breaking sort of way, and it brings the agency together. But it’s bloody expensive and bloody hard work. Relationships break down at home (sounds very dramatic, but it’s true) and loyal, paying clients get the short end of the stick.
I’m all for pitching. What I’m against is clients abusing the system. There’s probably no way around it, and nothing one can do except get onto the blog and let off some steam.
And on that note, let me get back to this pitch I’m working on.