Not long after one German car company chose its favoured agency, another German car company is following suit, with DDB, Special Group and DraftFCB getting set to duke it out for the BMW and Mini business.
BMW’s sales and marketing manager Greg Hedgepeth was unable to be contacted to confirm the agencies that have made it through to the shortlist (the pitch is being run by Sonya Berrigan), but it’s thought the final three was decided upon after the winner of the VW pitch was announced.
Sources have told us the BMW and Mini business is worth about half that of the VW business, so, in the case of DDB, it won’t quite make up for the loss of long-time client VW to Colenso BBDO. And, if history is any gauge, there’s also less opportunity to do local work with BMW. But, given the account is thought to be worth around $500,000 a year, it’s certainly not to be sniffed at.
After a period at No. 2 on the premium podium behind Audi, BMW climbed back up to No. 1 last year.
In other BMW news, marketing manager Dave Hewitt has resigned to take up a role with Nespresso. But the timing is thought to be coincidental and unrelated to the pitch process.
