Audi's Jason Lusty replaces Susanne Franz as Seat's global marketing director
As Susanne Franz departs Seat to join sister company Audi as head of brand communication and content marketing, Audi's Jason Lusty is transferring across to replace her as global marketing director.
Jason Lusty is replacing Susanne Franz as Seat's global marketing director
Lusty has spent the past four years at Audi, where he held the role of head of advertising, managed the launch of the Audi e-tron in Germany and boosted the digitalisation of communication both nationally and locally.
Before entering the car industry, Lusty spent many years developing his career on the agency side. He joined Audi from DDB Worldwide, where he held the role of global business director for the Volkswagen brand for five years.
Prior to that, he was chief executive of Heye Group for four years, after he moved on from his role of head of planning at DDB Germany.
He is replacing Franz as global marketing director — a role she held for nearly four years. She joined Seat in 2012 as head of marketing communication and media.
In his new role, Lusty has been tasked with boosting brand management at a time when the automotive sector is undergoing a transformation and committing to new digital platforms.
He has also been tasked with strengthening the Cupra brand, Seat's new sports car brand that launched last year.
On the appointment, Seat's vice-president for sales and marketing and chief executive of Cupra, Wayne Griffiths, commented: “Susanne Franz has done an excellent job in the past four years as global marketing director at Seat.
"Her creativity, passion and professionalism have been fundamental in taking Seat to the next level. Seat’s success and the launch of the new Cupra brand would not have been possible without the contribution of Franz.
“Jason Lusty will give us a new boost on the road we have taken in the past few years. One of his key tasks will be to strengthen and establish Cupra as a stand-alone brand,” Griffiths added.
"His 20 years of experience in different advertising agencies and more recently at Audi enables him to combine a global vision of different sectors with an excellent understanding of the automotive industry and future trends”.