After a 60-year partnership, Toyota South Africa Motors and FCB have announced that they will split as client and agency.
The automotive brand has recently announced that FCB will no longer be its agency of record for its brand and above-the-line account.
Toyota has made a decision to end the successful 60-year relationship to align its account globally through Publicis, which also services Toyota in other markets, including North America and Australia.
FCB, which opened doors in 1926 as E Lindsay Smithers Advertising Agent with the Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Company as its first client, has partnered with Toyota since 1961 when it was appointed to launch Toyopet, the first Toyota model to be sold in South Africa.
Since then, FCB and Toyota have notched up myriad successes throughout their partnership, both on the balance sheet and awards podiums and even more so over the last few years.
Understandably, the agency is saddened by the loss of the Toyota business, none more so than its executive creative chair, Brett Morris, who joined the agency in 1995 and had worked alongside his FCB colleagues on the Toyota business since then.
“We’ve travelled a long way together with Toyota,” he said. “There have certainly been some bumps along the way but together we’ve continued to take the chequered flag, each one of us contributing to Toyota’s iconic status within South Africa in our own way.”
“We are incredibly proud of the work we’ve done together, and we regard our collaboration with Toyota as one of the greatest things we’ve ever done. Thank you, Toyota, and everyone we’ve worked with over the years, for a partnership that has endured and for allowing us to share your amazing journey,” Morris continued.
“The shared values and culture built up over 60 years have forged a deep understanding of each other as partners to deliver our best together. The constant improvement is based on the Japanese business philosophy of Kaizen, which is Toyota and our partnership’s reason for success,” said Nahana Communications Group CEO, Thabang Skwambane.
“While we have come to the end of the road with Toyota, we hope that their new agency partner is able to continue the incredible success that we’ve had with them over the last 60 years,” Skwambane concluded.
