LONDON — Location technology specialist TomTom has selected Lewis to lead communications in the UK and the Netherlands, after a five-way competitive pitch.

The six-figure account, which was previously held by Text100, will involve repositioning the Amsterdam-headquartered company’s maps, navigation software and real-time traffic information and services in the enterprise and automotive sectors, rather than its previous focus on a consumer audience.

Lewis has been tasked with ensuring TomTom becomes as well known for the role its technology plays in connected cars, smart mobility and making autonomous driving a reality as it is for its sat nav devices: TomTom’s maps are already in more than half a million automated vehicles from different manufacturers.

The team will target key national business, broadcast and automotive media as well as working with TomTom’s in-house digital team in Amsterdam to integrate creative into its social media programmes.

TomTom’s head of PR Greg Morrison said: “After a very thorough agency review process, we selected Lewis in the UK and the Netherlands. We have strong brand awareness but need to reposition TomTom as a critical component in the future of smart mobility and autonomous vehicles. The insights, strategy, creative and team presented by Lewis was exactly what we wanted – and we’re looking forward to partnering together to tell the TomTom story.”

Lewis SVP EMEA Giles Peddy told the Holmes Report: “It’s really exciting to be repositioning a household name. TomTom’s mission is to get to 2cm accuracy on their maps, and then driverless cars can become a reality. We started in mid-January with a summit in Amsterdam with all TomTom’s agencies: they are really invested in repositioning the brand. There is no hub function, but we have built a dashboard for reporting and analysis that we’ll be rolling out to the other agencies.”

Ketchum picked up TomTom’s US account last year.