The Maxus win fully aligns the hospitality giant with WPP, as Ogilvy and OgilvyOne handle Shangri-La’s creative and digital accounts globally.
“We have enjoyed a long and fruitful partnership with OMD over the past 10 years and are thankful to them for their significant contribution and service during that time,” said Brendan Inns, vice-president for brand communications at Shangri-La. “Although we have a positive relationship, we believe that with an exciting new brand campaign about to launch, it has come to a natural cycle for us to consider a change to help new ideas and thinking.”
Inns did not further elaborate on the nature of Shangri-La’s new branding campaign.
“We are delighted with the opportunity to work with such an iconic global brand as Shangri-La,” said CEO of Maxus Asia-Pacific Neil Stewart. “We firmly believe that our relationship-media approach is perfect for an organisation that puts customer service at the heart of its brand.”
Although sources could not confirm the client’s intended media spend, Shangri-La’s global adspend reportedly fell between US$8 and $10 million last year.
Sources close to the account added that Shangri-La looks to focus its marketing initiatives on China, Japan, other areas in Asia-Pacific, the US and major European cities.
It is understood Maxus will service the business out of Hong Kong, with teams in China, Singapore, London and New York.
The win comes one year after Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts awarded Ogilvy & Mather its full-service global advertising account. That decision ousted incumbent TBWA, also an Omnicom agency.
TBWA had been working on the Shangri-La account since 1998, and reportedly vied to retain that business in the 2009 pitch.
Of the account’s move, CEO of OMD Asia-Pacific Maggie Choi, said she is confident the agency will work with the client again in the future. “We have enjoyed the relationship with Shangri-La and much as we are saddened to be parting ways at this juncture, we have no doubt that our paths will cross again further down the road given the nature of the industry,” she said.
Shangri-La currently has over 60 hotel and resort properties throughout Asia-Pacific, North America and the Middle East.