MUMBAI: Nissan Motor Company has appointed TBWA as the global marketing agency for Datsun after a closely fought pitch. The appointment comes close on the heels of the announcement of the return of automobile brand Datsun.

Global creative and strategic direction will be led by a combination of resources from TBWAHakuhodo and TBWALondon, supported by individual markets. The agency was appointed on the strength of the innovative ‘Riser’ brand platform developed for Datsun.

Datsun is an automobile marque. The name was created in 1931 by the DAT Motorcar for a new car model, spelling it as "Datson" to indicate its smaller size when compared to the existing, larger DAT car. In 1934, after Nissan Motor took control of DAT Motorcar, the last syllable of Datson was changed to "sun", because "son" also means "loss" in Japanese, and also to honour the sun depicted in the national flag, hence the name "Datsun". Then later on in March 1986 Nissan phased out the Datsun brand. It is ow announcing the will revive the brand for use in Indonesia, India and Russia.

Using this platform, TBWA will be responsible for developing the Datsun communications strategy, its global launch and local market activation.

Datsun is due to launch in 2014, with initial focus on India, Russia and Indonesia, providing local products under a global brand to the young middle class in high-growth markets.

Local TBWA offices will be responsible for delivering campaigns in their home countries – TBWAMoscow, TBWAMumbai, and TBWA and HAKUHODO Jakarta.

TBWA Worldwide president and CEO Tom Carroll said, “We are honoured and delighted to be leading the Datsun launch. We are mobilising our key rising markets’ expertise and resources around the world to ensure that we have our very best people working on Datsun.”

Datsun Business Unit corporate vice president Vincent Cobee added, “We are bringing the Datsun brand back, to provide a new experience to up-and-coming customers in high-growth markets. We are pleased to have TBWAWorldwide join us for the successful launch of this great Brand.”