Mazda Refreshes its Vision for the North American Market

Mazda has been expanding its relationship with various agencies beyond WPP, such as Optimal, a performance marketing firm. Optimal has become Mazda’s search agency of record and has also taken on media planning and buying responsibilities for the marketing of Mazda’s new CX-50 compact crossover. Additionally, independent shop Finn Partners has been added to Mazda’s roster, starting with a lifestyle PR project and continuing with additional work. Mazda’s spending on measured media in the U.S. in 2022, including paid social data from Pathmatics, amounted to $101 million, up from $69 million in the previous year, according to Vivvix.

Mazda is making significant changes to their agency partnerships, moving away from their primary reliance on WPP’s Garage Team since 2010. The team was located near Mazda’s North American headquarters in Orange County, California. The new marketing approach Mazda is taking requires them to look beyond the holding company for some tasks. Mazda’s CMO, who was an executive vice president for Garage Team for seven years before taking on the role, is well-versed in working with WPP.

“Back in the old days, you get aligned with one agency, and they would provide the majority of your services.And I think what we’ve realized, and what the marketplace has shown, is that you require basically an ecosystem of specialists … to attract customers now, just given the complexity of technology, data [and] fragmentation of different ways to connect with customers.” 

-Garage Team

“Two-thirds of the team was centralized in Southern California. But during the pandemic, obviously, everybody started to work remote. The virtual work environment affords companies the opportunity to attract the best talent regardless of their location. And so we’ve really kind of leaned into that.Rather than having a singular bespoke dedicated agency, what we’re doing is picking the pockets of specialism within WPP’s agencies … that are managed by us to help us achieve our business objectives.”

-Garage Team

It seems that the automaker has been making efforts to establish a more upscale image over the past few years. They introduced a new slogan in 2018 called “Feel Alive,” which was targeted towards individuals who are described as “creative, ambitious and imaginative.” However, it appears that this tagline has not been used in recent advertising. The CEO of Mazda has mentioned that they are currently developing a new brand platform, but has not provided any specifics about it yet.

Photo Source: Mazda USA Newsroom