On July 4 GM rolled out a new advertising campaign to support the launch of the redesigned Chevy Silverado.
The first spot is an emotional commercial that focuses on traditional values. The ad touches on strength, power and reliability. As Tim Mahoney, Chevy’s CMO, explained in a recent interview, “What we’re trying to do is emotionalize a category that has gotten pretty rational.”
You can watch the new ad here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3ngOek2J65s
My assessment?
This is terrific advertising that will build the Silverado brand and deliver strong results.
The problem in the auto industry today is that there are simply too many brands. The world is full of companies making solid trucks and cars. It is very difficult to stand out on features. If someone comes up with a nifty attribute, it isn’t long until competitors copy it.
Brands really matter. When all the options are good, people will gravitate to a brand they connect with.
The marketers at Chrysler have figured this out. On the Super Bowl this year, for example, Chrysler ran emotional spots for Jeep and Ram that worked exceptionally well.
So GM is making a smart move to build the brand on an emotional level. Having a new model is good. But it will only sell if people connect with the brand.
In many respects, GM’s new work harkens back to the campaign it used almost a decade ago to launch the last redesigned Silverado.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVVT-wumaLk
GM is on the right track with this new campaign.
I am interested to see how this campaign plays out in share growth across segments. I don’t know if it would appeal to my buddies using Silverados for work trucks.
In keeping with the theme of car companies with unusual new campaigns, I’d like to hear your thoughts on the new Kia Cadenza campaign. Kia is spending a lot on positioning the Cadenza as a luxury car (T.V., print, billboards) but luxury seems far removed from Kia’s current “value” brand image.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhqLBr-m334
As an ex GMer, I could not agree more. Glad to see they are using something different from the strategy of years past focused on the deal (cash on the hood, rebates, and other incentives).
The ads do try to establish an emotional bond with the audience, quite flowing with the modern trend of selling ideas with the product used in it.
I did a survey-based research to analyze television advertisements and their impacts on consumer behavior. The secondary data that backs the survey data come from industry, academics and government offices. You can find the report here:
https://crazymotts.blogspot.in/2013/07/consumers-guide-to-surviving-television.html
I did analyze the ad-campaign of Olay Total Effects from 2008 to 2013 to identify the trends in ad-content within a campaign for a specific product over a set of years. Please let me know if you find anything interesting in it, especially the mistakes, so I can improve upon those areas. Thanks for this blog.
Reblogged this on Kellogg Alumni Club Brasil.