After just over a year as client and agency of record, WestJet and TBWA\Canada have announced they are going their separate ways, citing “creative differences.”
The agency issued a statement Thursday morning announcing the split.
“WestJet is a great, successful brand, built upon the tangible passion of it’s people,” said agency president Jay Bertram, in the release. “Their business performance has never been better and we are very happy to have been part of that for the past year. However, we could not finally align on our mutual ambitions for the brand’s future growth and so we have agreed to part ways. We wish WestJet the continued success that they deserve.”
TBWA won the account in August 2011 following a review.
“TBWA is a great agency and the team was great to work with, and we wish them continued success in the future,” said Lauri Feser, WestJet’s vice-president of marketing, in a statement. “As Jay Bertram indicated in his comments, we could not gain alignment on our brand’s future growth.”
WestJet said it will be determining “next steps for its agency work” over the next few weeks.
TBWA replaced Taxi as agency of record after winning a six-month review last year. Taxi had held the account since 2005 and introduced the “Owners” advertising platform, which became the external face of the brand but also reflected the company’s strong internal culture.
A few months after completing its creative agency search, WestJet put its media account into review. Despite issuing an RFI in September 2011, it appears the account still resides with the independently owned Montreal-based Media Experts.
