Veteran adman David Morris has inked a deal this week which will see an extraordinary 17-year run as an independent Australian agency working with Land Rover end.
Morris & Partners is a rare bird, successfully holding off the globally agencies since 1997 to handle the Land Rover business here. But Jaguar’s three-year old global agency joint venture, Spark44, in which the luxury auto group holds a 50 per cent stake along with more than a dozen agency executives, has acquired Morris & Partners with a rebadge effective today.
Although set-up as Jaguar’s global communications and marketing partner, Spark44’s acquisition of Morris & Partners sees the group move on Land Rover for the first time anywhere in the world. It will also be the first office for the London-headquartered Spark44 in which it will handle Land Rover and Jaguar. Chief operating officer Ralph Specht told AdNews said there was no intent at this point to do likewise in other markets.
David Morris will stay in an advisory role with the company for a year, assisting a new CEO after a headhunt is completed.
Jaguar Land Rover’s marketing director Kevin Nicholls said Spark44 would manage both brands across all channels and for the retail business with franchisees. “Our plans for both brands are ambitious,” he said.
David Morris’s long run with Land Rover here is the antipathy to the promiscuous nature of modern agency-brand owner marketing and communications partnerships.
Short-term grabs from agencies and a revolving door of marketing teams on the brand side ensure most alliances remain short-term and fickle.
In the 26 years Morris has been with Land Rover in various agencies, he’s worked with 22 managing directors and marketing directors in Australia. The value to the auto group has been through the agency’s deeper institutional knowledge, understanding and context of Land Rover’s business in Australia than the changing line-up of executives at the auto group.
“We are delighted to build on what David Morris and his business partner Sally McGlashan have created over the years,” Specht said. “Spark 44 will provide a communication offering to Jaguar and Land Rover in Australia that ensures the marcom impact that these two iconic brands truly deserve.”
David Morris, the former CEO of the now defunct DMB&B Weekes Morris Osborn split with the international agency which acquired his local agency in the 1990s to work on Land Rover.
“We started on the Monday in a room at the back of an events company in Crows Nest,” Morris told a breakfast of industry colleagues last Friday. “Over the last 17 years there’s been one client that we’ve relied upon and who has relied on us more than any other – Land Rover. And in the last few years Jaguar as well. The name of the client has constantly changed – British Leyland, Leyland Australia, The Rover Group, Jaguar Rover Australia, JRA, PAG Australia, JLRA. It’s been owned by the British government, British Aerospace, BMW, Ford and now Tata [of India]. But the loyalty of JLR has never waivered.”
For more news:
Guardian has more native briefs than it can get a handle on
MediaCom confirms IAG under investigation, denies VW
Marketing Dividends: Marketers must constantly adapt to change
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at paulmcintyre@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day. Need a job? Visit adnewsjobs.com.au.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.