Chrysler has awarded Maxus its media planning and buying account following a global realignment.
The WPP-owned Maxus already handles media for Fiat – which last year took ownership of Chrysler – in markets around the world. However, in the Americas, it’s handled by Interpublic Group’s Universal McCann.
The Omnicom-owned Davinci Selectwork was the incumbent in Australia.
It follows developments in the US last year which saw Chrysler end its 60-year creative relationship with Omnicom’s BBDO in favour of Publicis Groupe’s Fallon.
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Shortly after, it was taken out of Clemenger BBDO in Australia and was this month awarded to Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett.
Martin Patton, Davinci Selectwork MD, said it had been preparing for the consolidation of the Chrysler account into Maxus since October.
“It was a fall out between Chrysler and Omnicom agencies – which we are. And when people make decisions based on ownership all you can do is try to hold onto the business for as long as you can,” Patton said.
“Naturally we’re disappointed and even more so on a personal note after a 13 year relationship. The global alignment is however no reflection on our local client relationship or work delivered on Chrysler’s business. It’s just sometimes a frustrating reality of working on global business, where locally delivery doesn’t count.”
He added that there would be no redundancies as a result of the loss the business which was its third biggest client, behind Mercedes-Benz and Austar.