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Ford Credit, the financial arm of the Ford Motor Company, has

appointed Ogilvy to its pan-European advertising account.

Ogilvy & Mather, OgilvyOne and Ogilvy Interactive are understood to have

pitched against Young & Rubicam and the incumbent, Wunderman Cato

Johnson, to secure the business. Ammirati Puris Lintas was involved at

an early stage but lost its place owing to its merger with Lowe

Howard-Spink, which handles advertising for General Motors. The pitch

was overseen by the AAR.

The value of the task is undetermined. Insiders say that the financier

is considering a number of projects and the adspend will depend on the

amount of projects undertaken.

One of the projects it is understood to be considering is financing the

purchase of second-hand cars and then giving them a quality

guarantee.

Another plan being considered is the launch of a Ford-branded credit

card.

The main aim of the advertising will be to generate loyalty for the main

Ford brand.

O&M’s managing director, Richard Pinder, who led the pitch, said: ’We

have been hired to do creative and marketing work for Ford Credit on a

number of projects.’

The company began the search for an agency in August, when it said that

it was only considering non-Ford agencies. A month later, it appointed

APL to its UK business. Since then, a new European sales and marketing

director, George Halloran, has been appointed and the relationship with

APL has come to an end.

The win marks a turn in Ogilvy’s fortunes with Ford. In recent years, it

has lost substantial chunks of its European Ford business to Y&R.