48 years strong: How Mazda and Clems rewired one of Australia’s longest creative partnerships

In a market where client-agency partnerships rarely survive a pitch cycle, Mazda and Clemenger have been building together for 48 years. But endurance alone isn’t the story.

The partnership has reinvented itself multiple times, from the Clemenger Harvie days of the 1970s to CHEP Network and back again to Clemenger BBDO in 2025. The creative model has shifted, the market has warped around them and Zoom-Zoom has come and gone and come back again. What’s changed recently is the ambition.

When Ashlin Moore stepped into the role as head of marketing in 2023, she saw a brand that was respected, familiar and loved, but drifting. Instead of chasing quick fixes, Moore leaned into Mazda’s most powerful asset: emotion. And yes, that means Zoom-Zoom is back in full.

“We track our brand health metrics very closely,” she said. “When I joined, I just sort of started to see there was definitely a trend of our brand health metrics where they were either stagnating or on a slight decline.”

The return of joy

Mazda’s pivot wasn’t driven by nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. It was backed by brand data, a consumer reality check and a strategic decision to reembrace what made Mazda feel like Mazda.

“Zoom-Zoom fundamentally stands for joy, optimism and wonder,” Moore said. “It's like, what's the best we can hope for in 30 seconds? You want to connect and give people a sense of joy and optimism. The rest takes care of itself.” 

After years of tactical cycles and premium-leaning positioning, Mazda returned to its soul. “We adapted our tone and our positioning and the way we present ourselves in the market. And it just never quite felt right,” Moore said. “We'd started to lose a little bit of the Mazda Zoom-Zoom DNA.”

“There is such a love for what Zoom-Zoom means in this country. Those iconic campaigns built deep affection and understanding. There is a real love for meaningful creative work, which is key.”

So Mazda stopped trying to be luxury and recommitted to being beloved.

“It should feel different. But if you start to take it into luxury, we realised we don’t actually belong there,” Moore said. “We belong because people know us, trust us, and love us.” 

If there is a masterclass lesson for CMOs here, it’s this: category elevation shouldn’t mean brand identity evaporation.

A reset moment

Behind the brand refresh sat a structural reset. For two decades Mazda worked through a dedicated 1Mazda team inside CHEP which steered the brand through some of its most successful years in the Australian market. 

“It absolutely had worked for a period of time,” Moore said. “But we'd been doing it for two decades. Is it too much of the same? Is there broader thinking that might evolve where we're going again?”

Instead of blowing up the relationship and pitching, Mazda took a closed-pitch approach. The brief that tested the model? The modern Zoom-Zoom relaunch.

“We didn't want to break this relationship. We just want to evolve it and make it better,” Moore said. 

The end result was the closure of 1Mazda and the account shifted into the wider Clemenger fold with broader access to strategy, creative talent and data capability. 

“What we have built is a best of both worlds model,” Clemenger BBDO managing director Thomas Penn, said.

"When we show up, we do it with impact otherwise we don't at all. We never just take the easy way. We’re always asking what is the problem that we are solving and what is the most creative, innovative way to solve it." 

And yes, longevity doesn’t mean it’s always smooth. In fact, Moore says the ability to push, disagree, reset and move on is part of why the relationship works.

“I'm sure most people say this, but for us it's very true. We don’t have a supplier relationship at all. It's very much partnership. I definitely see our account services team as an extension of the Mazda team.

"Thomas isn’t just a client partner; he's absolutely a colleague. And we get the best out of pushing each other. It’s a very honest and open partnership. When meetings don't go well, we acknowledge it and say ‘well, that wasn't great, let’s not do that again’ and we move on.

“We're very open and honest with each other. And the Clemenger team are great at pushing. If we're saying be brave, they're very good at pushing us to stay on that level of thinking.”

Creativity as a business lever

Moore sits on Mazda’s executive team and operates with data at her back and instinct up front. “I remember in the Nike movie, one of those 10 commandments said ‘marketing is an investment, not a cost.’ I really take that to heart,” she said.

Mazda runs market mix modelling to map brand, retail and nameplate performance channel by channel. It gives Moore the proof to push. “If I have the data to back it up, it really helps,” she said. “There's a real love for meaningful creative work. I sit within the executive team, so I'm able to push the agenda of what marketing and brand marketing should do.”

And the support runs top-down and dealership-wide. “When we relaunched Zoom-Zoom, the amount of support and love for bringing it back was enormous,” she said. “I haven't seen them that excited about anything.”

If every client-agency partnership claims trust, Mazda and Clems seem to have receipts.

“I see our account service team and our client partner very much an extension and just a colleague,” Moore said. “When meetings don't go well, you just go, Well, that wasn't great. Let's take some learnings and not do that again.”

Penn echoed the shared accountability. “Because of this relationship, we hold ourselves to a bar,” he said. “Ashlyn has called me on a handful of occasions and said, Here is something we need help with. How are we going to step up collectively?”

And there’s a bonus: Mazda hires talent out of Clems. “There are members of Ashlyn’s marketing team who worked in the agency,” Penn said. “I think there is something special.”

Steering into EVs and a competitive future 2026 looms large. Mazda’s first mass-market EV, the 6e, has arrived, with a revamped CX-5 landing mid next year.

“2026 feels like a really key moment for us,” Moore said. “You’ve got to protect the core of what is Mazda, but prepare for the future.”

That’s the real message here. Zoom-Zoom isn’t backward-looking. It’s ballast. Protect the soul, innovate on top.

“We always start channel agnostic,” Moore said. “What is the problem we’re here to solve? And then what's the most creative, innovative way to solve it?”

This isn’t about sentimentality. It’s about protecting differentiation in a category where everyone is chasing tech, specs and EV credentials.

“Zoom-Zoom had almost become apologetic," Penn said. "It was becoming a sign-off at the end of our comms, and we’d lost that certainty and bravery in elevating it. Having Zoom-Zoom as a brand asset is like finding a Picasso in the attic. You’d be crazy not to bring it downstairs and put it in pride of place.

“Ashlyn really pushed for the next evolution of what the Mazda brand means in this market. Credit to her, because that started the chain of events that has led to work that feels truer to the Mazda brand than it has in a long time. And it gives us the springboard to launch into everything coming next year.”

For Mazda, it’s back on the wall. And 2026 is looking like a grand reopening.