WE Marketing Group becomes Asia-Pacific partner in global Lufthansa agency network

Germany-based Lufthansa Airlines awarded its global advertising account to Kolle Rebbe earlier this year. Kolle Rebbe replaced McCann Worldgroup, which had held the Lufhansa account for more than a decade. MediaCom is still the global media AOR for Lufhansa.

In a bold move, breaking with classic agency networks, Kolle Rebbe and the client have chosen five regional agencies to form the core of a network tailored to handle Lufthansa globally.

In Asia, WE marketing group was chosen in Q2 as the partner for the Asia-Pacific region, handling Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Ad-Comm Group will be responsible for Japan and South Korea, and MRM India will responsible for India.

Andreas Winter-Buerke, head of account management at Kolle Rebbe, explained this new arrangement, “will allow all partners in the network to both contribute and drive the global strategy and executional development as well as to be able and willing to implement centrally developed material at a regional level, be it as straight adaptation or trans-creation, matching and building on regional/local insights."

Kolle Rebbe has created a new Lufthansa campaign, with a new marketing tagline ‘Non-stop you’, to highlight its extensive connections in Europe and international markets and highlight the attention the airline pays to passengers’ needs. 

The ad has rolled out across Germany and Europe.

Helen Lo, head of strategic planning at WE Marketing Shanghai, said the new creative direction aims to add more of a warm, emotional touch to the ad campaigns, as the Lufthansa brand is often perceived of being "disciplined but cold".

Like most other international brands looking to capitalise on the booming economy in Asia and particularly China, Lufhansa hopes to lure more leisure travelers from China to Europe.

This is WE Marketing’s first airline account. The agency’s international client portfolio includes Mercedes-Benz, Estee Lauder and Clinique. Lo said that the agency's managers all have rich experience working with international brands to gain local footholds in the China market.

WE's role will be to use Lufthansa's new global ad creative direction, but add local strategic inputs and insights tailor-made for Asia markets, Lo said.

As an example, Lo cited a cultural difference in creative execution: Europeans like to see models with tan skin on holidays, while Asian people prefer to see ads with models of light skin tone.