Mercedes-Benz has consolidated its media and creative business with Omnicom Group, which created a dedicated unit for the luxury automotive brand called “Team X.” The holding company beat Publicis Groupe for the business, which spans more than 40 countries.

Omnicom had already served as the automaker’s global media agency and controlled creative in the U.S. via Merkley & Partners. It also was the creative incumbent in China, where BBDO works on the business. Publicis loses the global Mercedes business it ran through a dedicated, Berlin-based unit called Publicis Emil that served as Mercedes’ global agency network since winning the business in 2018, which at the time was considered a big win for the holding company’s “Power of One” model.

Now Omnicom is creating its own bespoke agency for the luxury automaker in an arrangement that Mercedes in a press release describes as “an integrated and tailor-made agency solution unlocking a holistic view of the consumer across every brand-defining touchpoint, experience and moment along the customer journey.”

Search consultants on the six-month review included Ebiquity for media and The Observation for creative.

“By bringing together a new, fully integrated unit, Mercedes-Benz is re-orchestrating all of its communication content across all channels to deliver a data-driven, personalized and seamless brand experience for customers at all touchpoints worldwide,” Britta Seeger, a member of the board of management of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG who is responsible for sales, said in a statement.

Omnicom CEO John Wren in a statement said: “Mercedes-Benz was looking for a holistic agency partner that could help deploy a sustainable and globally consistent luxury experience for the company’s brand promise around the world for the first time. Our newly formed ‘Team X’ delivers on that goal, creating a streamlined global structure with clear single points of contact as well as innovative data and analytics connected in every layer.”

A Publicis Groupe representative declined to comment.

Omnicom had handled Mercedes media via OMD, whose Mercedes staff will now be integrated into the Team X team, as will employees at Merkley and BBDO who work on the account.

Omnicom also today announced the acquisition of two European agencies that work on Mercedes, which will both become part of Team X: Berlin-based creative and digital shop Antoni and Oliver Schrott Kommunikation GmbH (OSK), a German PR agency.

In the U.S., Mercedes continues to battle BMW for the converted luxury sales crown. After Mercedes led in the first quarter, BMW surged ahead in the second quarter. Globally, Mercedes—like all automakers—continues to deal with inventory challenges due to the semiconductor shortage. 

"We currently anticipate a more normal sales volume in the fourth quarter, probably on the level of the first or second quarter, but still far below what we've previously planned for," Daimler Chief Financial Officer Harald Wilhelm recently told Bloomberg News.