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Digital Horizons
Jaguar’s Rebrand Just Backfired. What Went Wrong?
Jaguar has officially dropped its agency, Accenture Song, following a disastrous rebrand that saw global vehicle sales nearly halved. In this Brand News episode, James Walker and Brian Hastings revisit Jaguar’s bold brand pivot and break down exactly what went wrong.
We discuss:
- Why Jaguar’s rebrand campaign failed to connect
- The downfall of data-driven strategy without creative clarity
- What brands should consider before pivoting away from heritage
- How HBO Max reversed a similar misstep
- Predictions for Jaguar’s next move
This is a cautionary tale for any marketing team or agency chasing reinvention without respect for brand legacy. If you’re in branding, advertising, or creative strategy, this one is for you.
Hosted by:
James Walker – Managing Director at WHD
Brian Hastings – Managing Director at Nous
The Digital Horizons Podcast is hosted by:
James Walker - Managing Director WHD
Brian Hastings - Managing Director Nous
Welcome back to Brand News Today. Jaguar, whom we did a recent video on about their new rebrand, is now looking for a new agency. Is anyone actually surprised?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we promised in the Jaguar episode, after giving it a pretty bad report on our view of how the campaign went, that we would check in and see whether it actually worked for them, whether they were doing something more advanced or something we couldn't see. In a couple of months and this is that time to look back and based on the fact that they've sacked their agency, accenture Song, and their sales have tanked, gone from about 65,000 global vehicle sales to about 33,000 global vehicle sales since that campaign it's safe to say it was a massive failure and there was no hidden smarts that were about to come out that no one saw.
Speaker 2:No joke, this was just to get your attention. It was just they were serious. Yeah, they were serious, a massive failure. And look, I saw the big news when Accenture created or rebranded their agency and, you know, were very focused on data-driven marketing and hyper-personalization in their media and approach. You know, accenture song came out and probably like around 2022, it hit the Australian market in 2024. And this is probably the biggest campaign that they're known for right now. So I think that's a cautionary tale for agencies to ensure creative is still very much leading or guiding what the brand message should be, rather than assumptions drawn from data only. This is a space where, if they have used this hyper-personalization and data approach to advise Jaguar that this is the best way forward, I think this calls for big brands to pause and really look at what's made them great over the years and not throw that away on a in-the-moment strategy from an external provider that doesn't really care about the longevity of your brand.
Speaker 1:So, as a brand guy in an agency that does a lot of branding, where do you see Jaguar gone from here, like, do you just roll it back and just go? Hey, we fucked up, we're now going back to our old brand, or do you just keep running with it? What, I guess, have you seen when the brand doesn't quite hit the market in the way you want it to?
Speaker 2:I think there's a case of this happening right now. Hbo Max rebranded to Max when they added this sort of discovery content and the market sort of spat that out. They didn't like Max. Everyone appreciates the prestige and the quality of the shows from HBO. So HBO and HBO Max have seen this and they're rolling Max back. Or that big rebrand to Max to join HBO and the Max content together is now going back to HBO because the people have spoken, that's what they prefer, that's what they signed up for. I wouldn't be surprised if Jaguar returns to a modernized but different version of their branding, because where they've gone is has alienated all their past customer base and it hasn't connected with their new prospective customer base with the electric vehicles. I think the only way is to revert with a bit of an evolution than to try to make this work and try to double down. It would be good money after bad, I think for them to stay on this path.
Speaker 1:Have they rolled out any cars with the actual branding on it, because they didn't even really show any cars in any of the yeah, and I think that was one of the major failures of the campaign was not showing cars.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we saw that pink concept but the ads with the models wasn't showing cars. That pink concept hasn't made it any further. I was hoping that they were going to have a big release, you know, shift to being really car focused and have something for the traditionalists and something for the, you know, the more modern potential customers. But that never eventuated, so I think they've just been on damage control.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they've been on damage control and I'm afraid that the damage they've done to their brand is so long lasting, if not permanent, that they'll have a long way to come back. And it's so sad for them to have trusted brand specialists, or so-called brand specialists, to do this and to do so much damage to such a heritage, long lasting, quality brand. Yes, it was struggling. That was something we said at the time. They've got to throw something at this problem because their sales are declining. But there's something they threw at it Hard the sales again. So yeah, it's just really unfortunate. I'm surprised it got through.
Speaker 2:Accenture Song should be ashamed of themselves for this. You know we've all seen briefs that have come from the client going the direction you didn't hope it to go in. But this definitely feels like there was a level of data backed trust in this approach for Jaguar to go ahead with it and it was definitely the wrong way to go. It would expect in the coming six to 12 months we would see a different face of Jaguar again in the future with a different agency.
Speaker 1:Okay Well we'll keep watching out for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, unless they just go bankrupt in the meantime. Yeah, but it's part of Jaguar Land Rover Group, so I'm sure that someone will reinvigorate the brand somehow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, thank you for watching Brand News Today. We'll be back with another episode shortly.