Lowe France wins Kia Cee'd account

by Nikki Sandison, Brand Republic 13-Feb-08, 10:30

LONDON - Lowe France has won a pan-European pitch to develop a campaign for car manufacturer Kia's Cee'd hatchback model.

Lowe Strateus will develop strategy and advertising for the Cee'd model across Europe, and will work closely with Kia's in-house agency, Innocean Worldwide.

UK and European agencies were invited to pitch last month. Mustoes, Kia's UK agency, was not involved in the pitch.

The Cee'd campaign is expected to launch in March and will run throughout 2008.

The win comes one year after Lowe Strateus was chosen by Kia to handle its ad account in France.

The appointment of Lowe Strateus follows a number of changes to Kia's marketing arrangements.

In June 2007, Kia appointed Simon Hetherington, the former Toyota marketer, as its first UK marketing director. Hetherington was recruited by managing director Paul Philpott, who joined Kia from Toyota at the beginning of last year.

Kia and its sister brand, Hyundai, have recently introduced a strategy of holding separate advertising pitches for individual models.

Last month, Hyundai hired Mother to launch its i10 model across Europe following a four-way pitch but they parted company just two weeks later. Mother said that it was "unable to agree satisfactory or reasonable contractual terms".

In January, Kia appointed OMD to handle media planning and buying on its global corporate account.