Leo Burnett wins BMW regional account for Asia
BMW Asia has officially named Leo Burnett as its creative agency for the Asian market following a competitive pitch.
The Publicis Communications-owned agency will largely be responsible for adapting and localising creative work from the company’s German headquarters.
Independent agencies Blk J and Formul8 were also shortlisted for the final round alongside the incumbent Ogilvy & Mather. The Singaporean creative account with PML is still to be announced.
A spokeswoman for BMW said: “I am happy to confirm that BMW Asia has appointed Leo Burnett as its creative Agency of Record. The team’s vast experience, industry insights and positive attitude is exactly what we were looking for. We also witnessed strong chemistry between BMW Asia and the team and Leo Burnett and this was essential in the decision making process.”
BMW recently appointed Wieden+Kennedy to handle creative duties in China, alongside Interone. Meanwhile, BMW-owned brand Mini recently put its Singaporean creative business out to pitch after GOVT resigned the account.
insert hateful comments here
Reply*Grabs the popcorn*
ReplyGo back to daddy…
ReplyI heard the posts are so vicious, none of them can be published. I will check back on Friday. This should be good. -B
ReplyInsert “bad contrived quote”. Why don’t the quotes ever say “we got it because we undercut everyone else on being the cheapest.”
Wonder how Audi feel about this since Publicis operates under one creative team to service the 3 agencies? If you’re “localising and adapting creatives from HQ” one assumes there is very little creative work required. Adaptation house anyone? At least they got rid of Ogilvy.
Replyif you think a network agency was cheaper than Formul8, or even a Blk J looking for a tentpole client and a 3 year contract, then you’re pretty naive.
Maybe Leo really were smarter, nicer and and a better fit with the brand?
ReplyLooks like a match made in heaven.
ReplyEveryone got what they deserved.
But the only winner here is R3.
Ogilvy’s exit was more or less a foregone conclusion. Haven’t heard of Blak J or Formula 8, so pretty much a walkover. Can hear the fireworks in Manila as CEO struts her latest underwhelming win.
ReplyWin after win after win though isn’t it?
Do you hate that she’s female? That she’s from the Philippines? Or that she’s been really successful in Singapore where (let’s hazard a guess) you haven’t.
You can have personal opinions on everyone and everything, but it’s hard to deny the growth at Publicis or the number of wins at Leo this year. That certain Ceo is doing something very right.
It may be hard to swallow but the only people who seem to be doing as well at winning new business, expanding current business and retaining business is bbh.
So why the attitude? Misogyny? Bigotry? Jealousy? Or just a bad day at the office?
ReplyNone of the above. Not at all envious of her. Sympathetic,if anything, because all these wins are itsy bitsy teenie weenies. Quite like Joji J’s gig that announced a whole lot of new biz a few days ago. I struggled to see what sort of numbers those wins translated into. That aside, salaries of axe women aren’t too high anways.
Reply@uncontested By virtue of the fact that you either can’t spell or don’t know two of the leading independent agencies in town says a lot. If you don’t know who Joji J is then you must be living under a rock. Or from Ogilvy.
ReplyThe Publicis team should have briefed JWT Vietnam to beef up the PR bit. The latter’s media spin on some K+ film is currently a global PR benchmark. https://www.mumbrella.asia/2017/07/jwt-helps-re-brand-vietnam-tv-station-k-look-beyond-football/
Replythere’s a tangent
ReplyA tangent to the K+ circle that JWT Vietnam’s CEO is going around in?
ReplyHaters? What’s to be hated about a dead brand? The whole city knows that LB is being abused as conflict shop by Publicis. Certainly no envy there…
Hear, hear…The “regional” account…, a joke of an account merely worth more than 200k per annum on PROJECT basis, so what’s to be celebrated here?
What everybody seems to forget, PML (the bigger piece) has yet to decide and they certainly won’t work with LB, given the Audi conflict.
So: Haters? Seriously? Congrats LB for yet another “transcreation” assignment.
ReplyWould you like a wager on the pml decision?
ReplyYou seem to have misunderstood the meaning of conflict shop. Nothing has been dumped into Leo. They’ve won things.
Sony, maybank, Bmw, Orchard Road.
They also run SkII globally out of Singapore – a bigger brand than any of us have.
And the pml decision pending.
Nothing was placed into the agency. Everything was won competitively, against the agencies we work for.
Leo is handing us our asses, while we snipe and bitch and moan.
Perhaps we could say congratulations and up our games.
Ps
Would the comments have been the same had BLK J or Ogilvy win? Or is this more personal?
ReplyFirstly, name me something Leo’s have done on Maybank since “We’re here to talk” last year, and let’s be real here, they’re hardly handing anyone their asses – I don’t believe any of the accounts you mentioned are retainer accounts either. SKII technically doesn’t even count under Leo’s any more (btw, it’s just the shopper/retail business run out of Singapore by Arc, not the entire SKII business).
And I think you’ve misunderstood the idea of conflict of interest here… I’m confident if you lump three agencies together on one floor in an open plan arrangement, with each agency having luxury auto accounts, it would be classified as a massive possible conflict of interest (or at least be a cause for concern) – you can’t spin it any other way.
Lastly, it’s not personal. People just want it to be. Honestly, no one cares what Publicis Comms are doing. The other CEOs are too busy trying to find revenue to plug their holes to give a rat’s.
ReplyWill anyone and everyone who even dares defend any work from Pub Comms in Singapore, please voluntarily self destruct. Instantly. They are/were all funeral parlours, except for Droga’s Saatchi, when David, Ted Royer and Andy Clarke took the place to another level. And we all know what Droga thinks of Pub Comms, so… please, self destruct, instantly.
The idea of opening an office bar to foster employee bonhomie and take attention away from deserving salary raises was a cunning one. Only works for shameless Group CEOs who slash employee dollar benefits to flaunt meagre local efficiencies in exchange for crumbs at King Arthur’s table. But blurred by the “free” beer culture, Pub Comms creatives are so oblivious to their own devalued misery, they can’t comprehend the sniggers of higher earning contemporaries in BBH, TBWA or BBDO at the award nights.
ReplyBlak J. Formul8. Govt. Mandate Ads. All the same. Leo won this with a higher fee, so that says a lot.
ReplyThe work coming out of the agency is utterly sub-par, only the UAE will ‘buy’ into the work. The truth prevails.
ReplyHi Fiona,
I had to edit part of your comment as it breached our guidelines against personal attacks: https://mumbrella.com.au/about/community-guidelines
Feel free to drop me an email and I’d be happy to offer any further clarification on our policy.
Cheers,
ReplyEleanor
Wow, okay. The other interview feature about GOVT is full of personal attacks on the agency. Are you contradicting yourself on this platform?
Replyyou know how bad things are when an agency celebrates an assignment adapting car advertising from europe…guess we already have the visuals nailed down….and the art direction will be from the guidelines book. so that leaves the pithy copy for banners, showrooms and weekend showroom collaterals.
lol.
Reply@Regional Spot on. Ogilvy will retain the local business because they are going to negotiate prices down and it is always easier to keep the incumbent.
ReplyI’ll put 500 bucks against Ogilvy, even if they drop their pants on price.
ReplyOgilvy needs to win it, so they will lose money on this to keep it. BMW will be stupid enough to take it. What level of creativity have you seen coming from their ads? Wonder what Audi is saying about Leo Burnet and Publicis housing creative teams in one unit. Won’t be surprised to see an Audi ad looking like a BMW one and vice versa soon!
ReplyHello ladies & gents!
It’s on a Friday night and I’ve just accidentally had to read so much of hatred and negativity. I’ve been always thinking that we advertisers are working for beautiful purposes rather than sitting behind the laptop screens and bitching about others’ achievements.
So yeah, bitch less, drink more and be happy unicorns.
Love.
ReplyHave your say