BBDO wins Mitsubishi to tap premium niche

SINGAPORE: Mitsubishi is positioning itself to take market share away from sub-premium European marques such as Rover and Volkswagen with a television and press campaign, which launches in a fortnight. Mitsubishi's Singapore distributor Cycle & Carriage (C&C), which moved the ad account last month from Euro RSCG to BBDO, is planning to double the marketing spend to Sdollars 4 million (about USdollars 2.3 million). The media will be booked through Omnicom's media agency OMD. It was previously handled by Euro. According to a spokesman from Euro, the car distributor was unhappy because the agency was also working for Volvo. But John Roberts, chief executive officer of BBDO, said the account had been moved because the client was unhappy with Euro's performance. Dawn Pan, C&C assistant marketing manager on Mitsubishi, however declined to elaborate on the reasons for the move. "We prefer not to offer any comment on the shift of agency," said Pan. "It is quite a sensitive issue and we do not want to make the relationship with Euro sour even though we have changed agencies." Roberts said BBDO had first approached C&C when it offered to conduct market research. BBDO's research found Singaporeans aspire to own prestige European marques. But Roberts added the study also found that "if they can't afford a Mercedes or BMW, they'll go for cheaper European marques such as VW". Based on these insights, BBDO created a campaign to woo these buyers by making Mitsubishi a more aspirational brand, he said. "It can be tough for some marques because consumers here are so brand conscious and for many people it's all just about prestige and badge value," according to Chris Kyme, regional creative director of FCB, which handles MG Rover and Saab advertising accounts in Singapore. "Mitsubishi will need to have a clever strategy to woo these image conscious consumers. "To be taken seriously, it has to do more than just have stylish photos of their vehicles," Kyme added. BBDO will be appointing Ara Hampartsonmian, who was previously general manager for an independent agency in the Bahamas, as account director on the Mitsubishi business. European marques accounted for around 21 per cent of passenger vehicle sales last year, while Japanese and Korean car brands commanded for 60 and 13 per cent respectively. The top 10 brands in passenger vehicles were Nissan on 11,905; Toyota/Lexus 9,488; Hyundai 5,616; Honda 5,305; Mitsubishi 4,308; Mercedez Benz 3,313; BMW 2,502; Mazda 1,943; Ford 1,551 and Proton 1,504. Mitsubishi was third in commercial vehicle sales of 3,810 behind Toyota and Nissan at 4,853 and 4,404 respectively.

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