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Could Toyota Move its Media and Creative Business also in the U.S.?

In Europe Toyota announced a plan to create a more customer-centric business model by moving its creative, digital, content and media business from Publicis Groupe to WPP-backed The&Partnership. If Toyota were to make changes in the U.S., where it spent US $1.4 billion in advertising in 2015, what agencies and decision makers would be impacted? Let's take a look.

Content

Toyota is perhaps the automaker most committed to U.S. multicultural audiences. One example is the Toyota opportunity exchange which took place last Monday and Tuesday in Covington, Kentucky. But is Toyota’s overall marketing strategy about to change in the U.S. as it recently did in Europe? In that continent Toyota announced a plan to create a more customer-centric business model by moving its creative, digital, content and media business from Publicis Groupe to WPP-backed The&Partnership. If Toyota were to make changes in the U.S., where it spent US $1.4 billion in advertising in 2015, what agencies and decision makers would be impacted? Let’s take a look.

“Our ambition is to strengthen Toyota’s brand image in Europe by producing ever better cars, communicating a clear brand purpose and maximizing the effectiveness of our media investments. We believe a new business model is required to achieve this – one that is more integrated and customer-centric – with digital transformation at its heart,” Karl Schlicht, executive vice president of Toyota Europe, said in a statement. As a result Toyota Motor Europe moved its creative, digital, content and media business from Publicis Groupe to WPP-backed The&Partnership, which will create a network of dedicated hubs called &Toyota for the auto maker. Media will be done by m/Six, a UK media planning and buying agency backed by WPP. The European account, estimated  at over US $300 million, was previously at Saatchi & Saatchi and Zenith.

Who Would be Impacted in the U.S.

So will this happen in the U.S? We don’t know, perhaps some of it may already have happened when in 2013 Jack Hollis Group Vice President, Marketing called for a more integrated “Total Market” approach between Toyota’s multicultural agencies and its general market agency. The new team, called “Total Toyota” was created so that the general-market advertising traditionally handled primarily by Saatchi would have more input from Toyota’s African-American agency Burrell Communications, Hispanic-market agency Conill and InterTrend Communications, which handles Asian-American advertising for the automaker, Hollis said.

Zenith, part of Publicis Media, is the media buying agency for Toyota in the U.S., Mexico and Puerto Rico and also for Lexus (general market).

Hispanic marketing agency Conill Advertising has Toyota Motor Sales among the agency’s roster of clients. Among the executives working on Toyota at Conill is  William Formeca,  Director Communication Strategies and is part of the Toyota Media Team.

Toyota brand Lexus works with agency Walton Isaacson, where Liz Palato and Alvaro Salinas are both media leads on the business. On the other rhand, Mike Marinero is in charge of the Hispanic marketing efforts.

Find out more on all the decision makers behind the Toyota and Lexus brands in Portada’s Interactive Database of Marketers targeting U.S. consumers.. Plus detailed contact information on more than 2,000 Corporate Marketers and Agency Executives targeting U.S. consumers. GET YOUR FREE TRIAL to PORTADA’s Interactive Database! Contact Sales Research Manager Silvina Poirier if you have questions: [email protected].

Additional Key Toyota Brand Marketers

David Chung Director, Advertising & Marketing Management

Mia Phillips is National Manager of Brand, Multicultural & Crossline Marketing Strategy of Toyota USA

Lisa Materazzo Corporate Manager, Media Strategy & Digital Engagement

 

Find out more on all the decision makers behind the Toyota and Lexus brands in Portada’s Interactive Database of Marketers targeting U.S. consumers.. Plus detailed contact information on more than 2,000 Corporate Marketers and Agency Executives targeting U.S. consumers. GET YOUR FREE TRIAL to PORTADA’s Interactive Database! Contact Sales Research Manager Silvina Poirier if you have questions: [email protected].

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