Yesterday Cadillac announced that it will “Dare Greatly” in the Great White North after picking Toronto’s Red Lion as its Canadian agency of record.
This decision comes more than a year and a half after Publicis swiped the global Cadillac account from IPG, which created the unit Rouge to serve the client. It marks an expansion of the client’s relationship with the holding company.
“This represents a huge win for Red Lion and an ideal client partnership,” said agency president and CCO Matthew Litzinger in a statement. (Litzinger left Cossette for Red Lion two years ago.) “For generations, Cadillac has been the ‘Standard of the World’ because it dared to challenge the status quo with passionate originality. It is the result of courageous thinking motivated by the desire to bring to life something truly exceptional. The evolution at Cadillac continues and being able to help shape that transformation is not only exciting, it’s an honour.”
Canada is the luxury carmaker’s third-largest market. But according to Marketing Canada, Cadillac has not had a Canadian agency of record before this announcement.
The press release describes the decision as “the next phase in the Cadillac mission to expand and elevate the brand and product portfolio.” Cadillac Canada managing director Mahmoud Samara said, “This partnership is a step for Cadillac Canada to join forces with a lead agency that shares our values. A daring mindset and the ability to challenge convention are some of the key traits we look for.”
Again according to Marketing Canada, Cadillac did not issue an RFP but instead chose a group of area agencies with which to discuss creative direction before picking Red Lion.
The client looks to boost its overall ad spend in Canada, with Red Lion’s first work debuting this fall.