17482: FYI WPP JLR WTF BS.

 

MediaPost reported WPP and JLR (Jaguar Land Rover) completed negotiations initiated last December when the UK-based automaker handed its global “end-to-end” marketing communications account to the single White operating company following a review.

 

The scheme involves an outcomes-based payment plan and WPP-JLR relationship structure that reflect a “building-the-car-while-driving-it” approach. After all, the new partners spent nearly six months hammering out the ambiguous contractual details.

 

The JLR Chief Growth Officer and WPP CEO Cindy Rose delivered corporate statements that sound like breakthrough but smell like bullshit.

 

In short, the scenario makes less sense than the last Jaguar campaign.

 

WPP, JLR Finalize Global Marketing Partnership

 

By Steve McClellan

 

In December, UK-based automaker JLR (FKA Jaguar Land Rover) confirmed that it had selected WPP to handle its consolidated global “end-to-end” marketing communications account, subject to final contract negotiations. 

 

Now, WPP has confirmed that those negotiations have been successfully completed. The remit includes media, creative, production, customer experience and marketing strategy. It covers the client's portfolio brands: Range Rover, Defender, Discovery and Jaguar. 

 

The carmaker spent an estimated $475 million on measured media last year, according to agency research firm COMvergence.  

 

WPP said the partnership moves beyond traditional models by forming a bespoke, integrated and co-located team from across WPP and JLR marketing talent. The business model, WPP stated, is “built on a unique outcome-based remuneration structure that aligns WPP’s success directly with JLR’s growth.”  

 

Lennard Hoornik, chief growth officer at JLR, said, “To supercharge the growth of our modern luxury brands, we needed to think differently. Together with WPP we want to resolve the traditional contradiction between scale and intimacy. Our joint vision for a single, AI-powered modern luxury marketing organization is the solution.”  

 

WPP’s CEO Cindy Rose, said, “This partnership is a testament to our shared ambition for the future of marketing. Our new mission at WPP is to be the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands in the era of AI. By combining the brilliance of human creativity with the transformative power of AI on WPP Open, we will help JLR create customer experiences of unparalleled intimacy and luxury, at scale, while writing a new playbook for growth.”