Ogilvy & Mather, Lowe, Fallon and DDB have been asked to pitch for the regional assignment. The winner will be appointed in the new year after their creative is tested in research. The winner will create regional campaigns for markets such as Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka in the west; Hong Kong and Korea in the north; and as far south as Australia and New Zealand.
VW works with seven agencies in 10 regional markets. It has no agency arrangement in four markets - India and Pakistan, where it has a small operation; Hong Kong, where the distributor is reviewing the business; and Malaysia, where VW has just changed its distributor. The move to hire a regional agency comes four months after VW relocated Chris Hawken, its UK-based manager on Skoda, to Singapore as the Asia-Pacific general manager of marketing.
"We are looking for a strategic partner to work on brand development long-term," said Hawken, adding that VW faced several challenges in Asia.
"VW has weak brand salience. There is a complete ignorance on the part of consumers. We are low on people's consideration set because they don't know about us. A lot of work needs to be done to get VW accepted in Asian markets."
Hawken's remit covers all regional markets except Japan and China. He said the regional office would actively encourage, but never force, the local distributors to run regional creative work.
Hawken said VW was positioned as a sub-premium car brand - below Mercedes-Benz and BMW - but a "cut above" the standard European and top Japanese models. Next year, VW has two major launches - the Phaeton sedan and the Touareg four-wheel drive.