This morning, Automotive News reported that the Land Rover brand has decided to cut ties with all of its creative agencies.
Before launching the lower-priced Discovery and Defender models, parent company Jaguar Land Rover moved to consolidate all work with Spark44, the in-house agency it created to promote the larger Jaguar brand. This means Y&R, Wunderman, Ogilvy, and Cogent Elliott will lose the business.
The move doesn’t come as a complete surprise: Spark44 launched in 2011 and made headlines, for example, in 2014 by acquiring Australia’s Morris & Partners. The shop’s work concerned Jaguar proper, and recent campaigns attributed entirely to Spark44 include the very British 2014 Super Bowl ad “Rendezvous.”
From the client:
“Extending our innovative Spark44 agency model to the Land Rover brand will maximize global marketing effectiveness and efficiency, enhancing consistency of approach and quality worldwide.
This is a long-term strategic decision and is not a reflection on the performance of the incumbent agencies. We are proud of our award-winning work with them, and would like to acknowledge and thank them for their work to date for the Land Rover brand.”
From Y&R/Wunderman:
“We are, of course, sad to see Jaguar Land Rover leave our agencies after 20 years of partnership. But we wish them well as they take the assignments in-house, and we will work with them to make it a seamless transition. Most of all, we are tremendously proud of having produced terrific advertising and marketing communications over many years and around the world that have helped define and drive the Land Rover brand successfully.”
As noted in the Automotive News report, Spark44 — which is “jointly owned by its management and Jaguar Land Rover” — currently employs more than 250 across offices in LA, London, Birmingham, Frankfurt, Sydney, and Shanghai.
Expect new campaigns to launch soon.