Audi France Re-Appoints Romance and Hands It Full Social Media
Audi France has renewed creative agency Romance after a competitive pitch and expanded its remit to the brand's entire social media — a rare 'renew-and-expand' win that consolidates creative and social under one roof.
A Rare Renew-and-Expand Win
Audi France renewed creative agency Romance — the Omnicom shop founded by Christophe Lichtenstein and Alexandre Hervé — after a competitive pitch, and expanded its remit to the brand's entire social media strategy on top of existing advertising, digital, CRM and data, announced 24 September 2026.
Romance has held the account since 2015, having last been renewed in 2021. The pitch also involved Rosa Paris. The move now places all four rings' social media alongside its creative work.
Consolidation Against the Fragmentation Trend
Most brands have spent years fragmenting their marketing across specialist shops — one for creative, another for social, others for CRM and data. Audi France is doing the opposite, consolidating creative and social under a single agency.
The logic is coherence. When creative and social sit together, the brand idea flows more consistently from a TV film to a TikTok, and there is less of the strategic drift that happens when a dozen agencies each interpret the brief.
What Marketers Should Take From It
Consolidation trades some specialist depth for consistency and speed. For a brand with a strong central idea, keeping creative and social in one place protects that idea and simplifies coordination.
Our view: the pendulum is swinging back toward consolidation as brands tire of stitching together fragmented outputs. Audi's move — nine years with one lead agency, now deepened — is a vote for continuity over the churn of constant re-pitching.
Quick FAQ
What did Audi France announce about Romance?
On 24 September 2026, Audi France renewed agency Romance after a pitch and expanded its remit to include the brand's entire social media strategy, on top of advertising, digital, CRM and data.
How long has Romance held the Audi France account?
Since 2015, with a previous renewal in 2021; the latest pitch also involved Rosa Paris.
While most brands fragment their marketing across a dozen shops, Audi is consolidating creative and social under one agency after nine years together. That's a vote for coherence over churn — and when you have a strong central idea, coherence is exactly what protects it. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
Consolidating creative and social under one agency trades specialist depth for the coherence a strong brand idea needs.
Is your marketing fragmented across so many agencies that the central idea gets lost in translation?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Stratégies, CB News and L'ADN.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
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