Touché’s win of Volkswagen Group’s Canadian media planning and buying assignment vaults the three-year-old Omnicom Media Group (OMG) network into the “big leagues” in Canada, says its president.
Karine Courtemanche learned on Friday that Touché had been awarded the Canadian Volkswagen assignment as part of the massive global win of the Volkswagen Group assignment by its sister OMG network, PHD.
“[Automotive] was an open spot we’ve been eager to fill for many years, so we’re extremely happy,” Courtemanche told Marketing on Tuesday. “For sure it puts us in a bigger league.”
Volkswagen was one of the clients Courtemanche worked on as a junior planner at Palm Communications in the late 1990s.
She called automotive a key category for media networks, helping inform the work done for clients across multiple categories. “It’s an industry where there are a lot of learnings that can make you better as an agency,” she said. “[Retail client] Canadian Tire Corporation pushed us to be more nimble and more reactive, and I feel that Volkswagen can [do the same],” she said.
Volkswagen Group spent US$3 billion on measured media worldwide in 2014, according to the Ad Age Datacenter, and is believed to be the biggest account win in PHD’s history.
The account, which includes the Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche brands – as well as European brands Seat and Skoda – had previously been with GroupM’s MediaCom unit.
The win capped off a lengthy review that began in May 2015, with Courtemanche saying Touché was “very involved” in the process in North America.
Touché Toronto’s former managing director Terry Horton (since promoted to head of the Canadian arm of Omnicom’s new Hearts & Science network) and director of digital investment Emily Douglas were part of a North American pitch team comprised of personnel from the U.S. and Mexico – as well as international team members – that travelled to Washington, D.C. to present case studies for the Volkswagen and Audi brands in December.
“The feedback we got was that it was seamless across all of the countries that presented together, which was something [Volkswagen] was looking for,” said Courtemanche. “The chemistry of our team was pointed out as being a strong point of our presentation.”
Courtemanche said decisions on new hires and leads for the Volkswagen account would be made once the scope and scale of the assignment become apparent. However, she said Touché would rely on a mix of internal and external appointments to handle the account.
Touché Toronto’s three-year-old office is expected to grow in size to nearly 80 people as a result of the win. “It’s beyond all of our expectations after only three years,” said Courtemanche.
Touché was selected to handle the Volkswagen account in Canada because of sister agency PHD’s longstanding involvement with Honda Canada, said Courtemanche. In the U.S., OMG plans to create a dedicated unit to handle the Volkswagen Group assignment, the same strategy it employs for Porsche.
“We’re lucky that we don’t have to turn to such strategies in Canada because we have one more [network] brand,” said Courtemanche. “It turns out that our strategy to have a third network [after OMD and PHD] is paying off.”
While Touché was not specifically created to be a conflict network, the Volkswagen win underscores the value of having a third network to complement the OMD and PHD brands, she said.
“The vision was always that OMD and PHD would take on global accounts, with Touché dedicated to Canadian clients and [specializing in] innovation, creativity and a certain flare that makes us different,” said Courtemanche. “The vision was not that Touché would act as a conflict shop for international pitches – it’s just a favourable outcome of our strategy.”
Volkswagen joins Ferrero as the only other global brand on Touché’s client roster, although in addition to Canadian Tire Corporation its strong domestic roster also includes financial services company Desjardin and VIA Rail.
Volkswagen sold 70,344 units in Canada in 2015 – led by sales of 27,719 for its Jetta model and 20,515 for its Golf model – a 7% increase from 2014. However, global sales fell a reported 2% as the company was embroiled in scandal over diesel emissions.
