The&Partnership and Vision7 Media will once again work together to create a bespoke agency for a shared client after picking up Toyota Canada’s national retail marketing assignment.
In February, Toyota Canada announced that it would be consolidating all of its tactical marketing efforts for the 18 different Toyota Dealers Associations operating in the country. That not only meant the automaker would consolidate its dealer-level creative, digital, data, analytics and media work across Canada, but it also meant it would look for a single agency partner to handle the combined assignment. A review launched shortly after the announcement was made.
Between the Toyota Canada brand and the dealer associations, eight different agencies – including Bleublancrouge, Rain and Prime Creative – were working with the automaker at the time it announced the impending review.
Dubbed The Showroom, the joint venture between The&Partnership and Vision7 will operate as a single team across disciplines to “deliver creative consistency and share of voice across all channels,” according to a shared press release. The assignment covers all dealer association marketing in Canada. The bespoke agency will also receive support from Response Advertising on multicultural work.
The joint effort between Vision7 Media and WPP’s The&Partnership is the second time the two agencies have teamed up. Last year, they established a dedicated team for telco client Telus, called The Greenhouse.
Christopher Andrews, president of The&Partnership, and Joseph Leon, president of Vision7 Media, said in a joint statement to strategy that while the model is designed specifically to the needs of each client, The Showroom is built on the previous success it has had putting the model to use for Telus.
“A single, integrated team with data and technology at its core yields significant advantages, ranging from speed, agility and efficiency to innovation, insights and impact,” the pair said. “The collaborative nature of this type of bespoke model also fosters an incredible team spirit, reducing friction in creation and delivery, allowing the team to focus on doing great work that generates the strongest results.”
The pair added that the transparency, trust and lack of silos required by bringing two agencies together were an added benefit, and meant “a shared commitment” would be a foundation for its work.
Andrews and Leon said it was too early in the planning stages to say how large the team working on Toyota would be; whether staff would be solely dedicated to Toyota; or if they would move between The Showroom and work for other clients at their respective agencies. The first work is expected to debut in the new year.
Toyota has maintained its hold as the second-best selling auto brand in Canada, selling 176,595 new vehicles so far in 2018, an increase of 1.7% over the same period last year. This comes as some of its competitors begin to feel the glow of a hot Canadian auto market begin to wear off after years of sales records. Ford remains the top-selling brand in Canada, however its 2018 sales through October are down 2.5%. Honda’s Canadian sales are also down by 0.9%, while combined sales for General Motors’ brands are down 1.9%.
