Cutwater beat other Omnicom shops such as Element 79 in Chicago, Martin/Williams in Minneapolis, BBDO and Downtown Partners in Toronto. Chrysler confirmed the win and said that the new advertising and brand strategy was approximately a month away, meaning Cutwater will start work on new creatives immediately.
The advertising creative for Jeep was transferred from BBDO Detroit to BBDO New York about a year ago. However, Jeep has recently recorded a 3% drop in sales from 2005 to 2006. Overall media spending for the Jeep brand in 2006 was $330m (£167m), according to TNS Media Intelligence.
Cutwater will develop creative for all Jeep brands including Patriot, Compass Wrangler, Wrangler Unlimited, Liberty, the Commander and the Grand Cherokee.
George Murphy, senior vice-president of global marketing for the Chrysler Group, said: "We look forward to Cutwater providing breakthrough creative for the Jeep brand, while working closely with BBDO Detroit to expand our advertising and marketing initiatives."
BBDO Detroit had been the advertising agency of record for the Jeep brand since 2001. The Motor City agency is also the agency of record for the Dodge and Chrysler brands.