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

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome back to Brand News Today.
Jaguar, whom we did a recentvideo on about their new rebrand
, is now looking for a newagency.
Is anyone actually surprised?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah, I think we promised in the Jaguar episode,
after giving it a pretty badreport on our view of how the
campaign went, that we wouldcheck in and see whether it
actually worked for them,whether they were doing
something more advanced orsomething we couldn't see.
In a couple of months and thisis that time to look back and
based on the fact that they'vesacked their agency, accenture

(00:39):
Song, and their sales havetanked, gone from about 65,000
global vehicle sales to about33,000 global vehicle sales
since that campaign it's safe tosay it was a massive failure
and there was no hidden smartsthat were about to come out that
no one saw.
No joke, this was just to getyour attention.
It was just they were serious.

(01:01):
Yeah, they were serious, amassive failure.
And look, I saw the big newswhen Accenture created or
rebranded their agency and, youknow, were very focused on
data-driven marketing andhyper-personalization in their
media and approach.
You know, accenture song cameout and probably like around
2022, it hit the Australianmarket in 2024.

(01:22):
And this is probably thebiggest campaign that they're
known for right now.
So I think that's a cautionarytale for agencies to ensure
creative is still very muchleading or guiding what the
brand message should be, ratherthan assumptions drawn from data
only.
This is a space where, if theyhave used this

(01:44):
hyper-personalization and dataapproach to advise Jaguar that
this is the best way forward, Ithink this calls for big brands
to pause and really look atwhat's made them great over the
years and not throw that away ona in-the-moment strategy from
an external provider thatdoesn't really care about the
longevity of your brand.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
So, as a brand guy in an agency that does a lot of
branding, where do you seeJaguar gone from here, like, do
you just roll it back and justgo?
Hey, we fucked up, we're nowgoing back to our old brand, or
do you just keep running with it?
What, I guess, have you seenwhen the brand doesn't quite hit
the market in the way you wantit to?

Speaker 2 (02:21):
I think there's a case of this happening right now
.
Hbo Max rebranded to Max whenthey added this sort of
discovery content and the marketsort of spat that out.
They didn't like Max.
Everyone appreciates theprestige and the quality of the
shows from HBO.
So HBO and HBO Max have seenthis and they're rolling Max

(02:42):
back.
Or that big rebrand to Max tojoin HBO and the Max content
together is now going back toHBO because the people have
spoken, that's what they prefer,that's what they signed up for.
I wouldn't be surprised ifJaguar returns to a modernized
but different version of theirbranding, because where they've
gone is has alienated all theirpast customer base and it hasn't

(03:06):
connected with their newprospective customer base with
the electric vehicles.
I think the only way is torevert with a bit of an
evolution than to try to makethis work and try to double down
.
It would be good money afterbad, I think for them to stay on
this path.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Have they rolled out any cars with the actual
branding on it, because theydidn't even really show any cars
in any of the yeah, and I thinkthat was one of the major
failures of the campaign was notshowing cars.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, we saw that pink concept but the ads with
the models wasn't showing cars.
That pink concept hasn't madeit any further.
I was hoping that they weregoing to have a big release, you
know, shift to being really carfocused and have something for
the traditionalists andsomething for the, you know, the
more modern potential customers.
But that never eventuated, so Ithink they've just been on

(03:56):
damage control.
Yeah, they've been on damagecontrol and I'm afraid that the
damage they've done to theirbrand is so long lasting, if not
permanent, that they'll have along way to come back.
And it's so sad for them tohave trusted brand specialists,
or so-called brand specialists,to do this and to do so much
damage to such a heritage, longlasting, quality brand.

(04:20):
Yes, it was struggling.
That was something we said atthe time.
They've got to throw somethingat this problem because their
sales are declining.
But there's something theythrew at it Hard the sales again
.
So yeah, it's just reallyunfortunate.
I'm surprised it got through.
Accenture Song should be ashamedof themselves for this.
You know we've all seen briefsthat have come from the client
going the direction you didn'thope it to go in.

(04:41):
But this definitely feels likethere was a level of data backed
trust in this approach forJaguar to go ahead with it and
it was definitely the wrong wayto go.
It would expect in the comingsix to 12 months we would see a
different face of Jaguar againin the future with a different
agency.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Okay Well we'll keep watching out for that.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, unless they just go bankrupt in the meantime
.
Yeah, but it's part of JaguarLand Rover Group, so I'm sure
that someone will reinvigoratethe brand somehow.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, well, thank you for watching Brand News Today.
We'll be back with anotherepisode shortly.