Garage Team Mazda, an in-house advertising agency for Irvine-based Mazda North American Operations, hired Steve Chavez as its chief creative officer.
Chavez served in a similar role at Leo Burnett in Detroit overseeing the Buick account. He replaces Erich Funke, who parted ways with the agency in June after a two-year stint.
The Costa Mesa-based ad firm also hired Arnel Kasmally as senior vice president and head of customer engagement, along with Joanna Young as chief strategy officer, a new position. Young hails from Team One in Los Angeles, where she was in charge of brand strategy for The Ritz Carlton/St. Regis hotels, PIMCO and Lexus.
The addition of new talent will “further strengthen our overall marketing capabilities,” Mazda’s Chief Marketing Officer Dino Bernacchi, said in a statement. “This is especially important as Mazda continues to move toward premium by strengthening our brand, our customer engagements, and coordination with our dealer partners.”
Bernacchi joined Mazda in April 2017, taking over some of the duties from then-vice president of marketing Russell Wager, who left the brand in October and now heads marketing operations at Kia Motors America in Irvine.
Mazda spends more than $400 million on marketing, according to Wager’s LinkedIn profile. The automaker reported a 15.5% decrease in sales for the first half of the year with 138,555 vehicles sold in the U.S.
Garage Team Mazda, part of WPP, was founded in 2010 and offers traditional agency services, PR, digital and social, motorsports, retail marketing, analytics and data, and oversees all advertising and marketing for the automotive brand.
