Kia Motors has shifted its entire media account from Havas Media to Melbourne independent agency, Advertising Associates, B&T can reveal.
Updated 19/9: Clarified account value and added comment from Virginia Hyland, CEO, Havas Media Network.
The Kia media account went up for pitch in June.
“Through a stringent pitch process, one of our incumbent media agencies, Advertising Associates, has been successful in securing Kia’s entire media buying portfolio,” a Kia spokesperson told B&T.
Havas Media had held Kia’s $12 million digital media account since 2020 after the Korean automaker moved its $22 million above the line work to Advertising Associates.
“I appreciate that Kia have a strong ongoing relationship with Advertising Associates for many years, and moved the $22 million above the line expenditure to them in 2020 without a pitch. Now wishing to align the Havas Media $12 million digital spend with one agency. No doubt given the outstanding success of the Havas Media team – our skills will definitely be of great value to like-minded companies. We wish Kia all the best in the future,” Virginia Hyland, CEO, Havas Media Network told B&T.
“I want to personally thank my Kia team for the incredible dedication to Kia since 2017.
“Delivering over 182k leads in the 12 months to June ’23 alone to optimise the brand work already held by Advertising Associates and drive bottom of the funnel results. My team is world class and in the tougher 2023 year of automotive sales we are the only agency to help improve search ranking, leads and share of market for the automotive category. I couldn’t be prouder of my team.”
Havas Media had held the Australian account since 2017 and retains the media accounts for Kia, Hyundai and Genesis in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East following a global pitch last year. INNOCEAN remains Kia’s creative agency.
