BLD to lead £25m Lexus Europe brief
Lexus, the luxury car marque owned by Toyota, has appointed BLD Europe to create consistent advertising for the brand across Europe.
The agency, which is based in Brussels close to Lexus Motor Europe’s headquarters, will act as lead agency for the company’s $40m (£25m) account.
BLD Europe, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dentsu, pitched against Saatchi & Saatchi, FCB Worldwide and Germany’s Wensauer & Partners.
Saatchi handles Lexus’ advertising account in the UK. The car company says the appointment of a European agency will not affect its relationship with Saatchi. The agency has the majority of Toyota and Lexus’ advertising on a market-by-market basis across the world.
The Lexus pitch was overseen by Lexus Europe deputy general manager of marketing Steve Hague, who was unavailable for comment.
Earlier this year, Saatchi created Lexus UK’s first television branding campaign, with the tagline “It’s a feeling inside”.
Last year, Toyota appointed its own European agency Lowe Lintas to operate across Europe, but not in the UK. To date, no advertising created by Lintas for Toyota has been seen in the UK. The appointment of BLD coincides with the opening of the new Lexus centres in Europe. This is the first time the marque has been allocated separate dealerships from Toyota.
