The assignment, which covers all regional markets except China and Japan, is worth at least US$4 million in annual billings, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Volkswagen has a strong following in Europe and North America, but it has struggled in most parts of Asia. Fallon Asia managing director, Charles Edwards, said that part of the problem lay in employing a disparate network of agencies, based on local market decisions, which resulted in different brand positioning and pricing from market to market. "The pricing of Volkswagen was out of whack with the competitive set of brands it is up against in Europe. In some markets in Asia, its price point was similar to that of a Mercedes Benz or a BMW," Edwards said.
The drive towards consolidation came with the appointment late last year of Chris Hawken, previously VW's UK-based manager of Skoda, to regional general manager of marketing. Hawken said that Fallon was chosen over Ogilvy & Mather, Lowe and DDB because of creative recommendations based on strategy and research. Despite the consolidation of the creative account, the media brief will behandled by a roster of media agencies.