Cadillac’s “Don’t You Dare” Ad Blitz Breaks On Oscars

Cadillac  breaks a lofty, new ad blitz during the Academy Award broadcast Feb. 29 that it dubs an evolution of its year-old “Dare Greatly” campaign.

This time around, the ads are themed “Don’t You Dare” and showcase 8  innovators. Cadillac Global CMO Uwe Ellinghaus said the blitz “is the physical embodiment of ‘Dare Greatly,’ encouraging consumers to take action and never accept the status quo.”

The “Brand” spot and similar “Stories” commercial, each a minute long, mostly show the young people, with brief descriptions of their impressive accomplishments. The aim is to show viewers these people would not have succeeded had they not dared question conventional wisdom. “I want people to go online to find out who these people are,” Ellinghaus says.

But Oscar night TV viewers may wonder what those two commercials are advertising, since a Cadillac vehicle only appears for a few seconds at the end of  each spot. I’m  not sure those ads are compelling enough to keep viewers’ attention until the punchline.

The people spotlighted in the ads range in age from 15 to 25 – certainly not in the mainstream age group of Cadillac buyers today. The average age of buyers in 2015 was 57, says a Caddy spokesman. That dropped from the upper 6os in 2006 and the low 70s from 2001, according to Edmunds.com. That’s notable progress, folks.

Cadillac is  trying to build its brand image now to appeal to these younger buyers down the road. Also, as per marketing logic, you can target older buyers by showing younger folks in ads, but not vice versa. There are also car marketing experts who don’t like to see people in ads because they believe it can limit broad appeal across age groups and sexes.

Janusz Kaminski shot the work, his first automotive ads. The Polish-born filmer has been nominated 5 times for Best Cinematography Academy Awards, winning twice for “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan.” He also handled last year’s “Bridge Of Spies.”

For the Oscar broadcast, Cadillac has 5.5 minutes of ad time, including 4 minutes during the show and 1.5 minutes in the pre-show. There’s a total of 6 different commercials, although the advertiser only showed 4 of them to reporters ahead of time. All the ads direct viewers to the DAREGREATLY.com web site, established a year ago.

Publicis in New York, is Cadillac’s ad agency and these ads will also air in China, the first time the same ads have run in Cadillac’s two biggest markets.

The two other :60 spots I previewed were product specific: one for the new XT5 suv ; the other for the CT6 sedan, my personal favorite of the bunch.

This is truly a break-through (pardon the pun*) commercial that grabs your attention with its visual beauty and sleek shots of the CT6. The reverse-motion photography matches the narration “Only those who dare drive the world forward.”

Since his arrival at Cadillac in January 2014 from luxury pen maker Montblanc, the German-born Ellinghaus has preached that car ads merely showing beautiful vehicles aren’t enough these days. He said he’s working to make General Motors’ luxury brand relevant to customers and to stand for something that draws passionate, sophisticated and optimistic buyers.

Ellinghaus, who also had a stint at Germany’s BMW Group in marketing from 1998 to 2012, admits Cadillac faces challenges from his former auto employer, along with Audi, Mercedes-Benz and the Japanese luxury nameplates. But he points to progress Cadillac made in 2015 , not just with rising global sales, but higher transaction prices, lower inventories and less incentive costs. Brand opinion metrics also rose last year for Cadillac , he says.

I doubt this campaign will set the world on fire for Cadillac. This has to be a long term effort, which hasn’t always been the case in the automotive world, including Cadillac. But at least, for now, Cadillac has put a stake in the ground and is sticking to its guns from a year ago.

*”Break Through” was Cadillac’s ad theme from January 2002 until fall 2006 that used the song “Rock and Roll” by Led Zeppelin.

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World’s Best Car Ads

It’s official!

The non-profit group, The One Club named the global winners January 13, 2015 during a special even during the press days of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. There were submissions  from 16 countries, but only two winning USA advertisers and ad agencies: Audi of America and its shop Venables Bell & Partners in San Francisco, along with Hyundai Motor America and Innocean USA in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Audi and Hyundai won the Broadcast TV category in a 3-way tie with Toyota Australia.

Audi’s winning TV spot for the all-new Q3, dubbed “The Scripted Life,” encourages people to “break from the script” of mundane, everyday  life.

The commercial wasn’t widely watched on YouTube, generating a mere 20,000 views from the time it was posted in late August to mid-January. In my book, it’s just an okay commercial.

Hyundai’s award winner was from the 2014 Super Bowl commercial. The spot for the Genesis touts the car’s sensory surround safety. Dubbed “Dad’s Sixth Sense,” the spot shows how the automatic emergency braking works to help a teen son at the wheel with his father riding shotgun avoiding a crash with another car as he checks out a young lady on the sidewalk.

My absolute favorite of the winning broadcast trio is Toyota Australia’s “Unbreakable Drivers,” for the Toyota Hilux pickup from Saatchi & Saatchi in Sydney. The humor is pure Aussie fun and can’t help but make you smile.

The spot, featuring narration by Down Under actor Russel Crowe, attracted a respectable nearly 590,000 views in just over 3 months.

Volvo Trucks won the Online Video category. Ad agency Forsman & Bodenfors in Gothenburg, Sweden, created this dramatic “Epic Split” video to demonstrate the precision and directional stability of Volvo Dynamic Steering. Actor Jean-Claude Van Damme is absolutely amazing doing a split as the two Volvo Trucks back up

Even more amazing: Forsman & Bodenfors and director Andreas Nilsson shot the 1:16 video in one take (in Spain on a closed landing field at sunrise). The haunting music is Enya’s “Only Time.”

But the real eye popper is that this video attracted more than 77 million views on YouTube since it was posted just two months ago!

Honda took home the Interactive award with a 2:55 video from Wieden + Kennedy, London, for the Civic Type R.

Dubbed “The Other Side,” W+K produced two parallel tales of the same man, a caring dad by day picking up his daughters in his white Civic and by night an undercover cop delivering a crew of art thieves to a police sting driving a red, sportier Type R.

The viewer is in control, merely having to press the “R” key to toggle between actor Jean-Phillipe Ricci’s two lives.

The original video on YouTube hit 4 million views in less than 3 months and was boosted by the web site www.hondatheotherside.com along with social media. Daniel Wolfe directed, with Bobby Krlic of The Haxan Cloak handling the music.

Volkswagen was awarded top honors in Experiential Advertising for an in-theater, car safety push from Ogilvy One Beijing in China. Movie goers may have thought they were watching a pre-film car commercial of someone driving along a road, but got a shock when their mobile phones sounded

VW says the effort to curb mobile use while driving attracted a lot of media coverage, was the top auto viral video and generated more than 26 million views in a month.

It’s not the first time VW has used a jarring shock to get the safety message out. Back in 2006, VW of America ran a commercial that showed a Jetta with two young couples coming home from a double date at the movies getting suddenly rammed by another driver. No one was hurt, but the spot from Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami was both praised and panned.

Jeep won the Print/Outdoor award for work by Leo Burnett France in Paris. The “Upside Down” poster campaign. In a unique move, the ads do NOT show a Jeep. Instead, each poster shows a different animal. But when the image is flipped 180 degrees there is a different animal. “See whatever you want to see” is the ad tag.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Kudos to all the the winners of the 2nd Annual One Show Automobile Advertising of the Year Awards!

MAKING TRACKS: Satish Korde moves up to Chief Operating Officer at WPP Group’s Global Team Ford in Dearborn, Michigan from CEO of sibling Team Detroit, a post he’s held since the summer of 2011.

Before his 2011 appointment, the low-profile Korde had been global client director for Team Detroit’s parent company, WPP.

Korde succeeds Mark LaNeve, 55, who will move Feb. 1 to his client, Ford Motor Co., as head of U.S. sales, marketing and service.

March Marketing Madness: Nissan, Chevy, Dodge

Nissan’s Snowy Deja Vu
  It’s certainly been a winter for record-breaking snow and nasty weather. So maybe it’s no surprise that Nissan used a snowy street scene with snowmen for a TV commercial to launch its redesigned 2014 Rogue.
The spot, which aired first in Canada and then in the USA touts the all-wheel-drive of the new Rogue compact SUV. TBWA created the commercial, dubbed “Winter Warrior.” Both the :60 and :30 versions show evil snowmen attacking a Rogue driver on a snowy street. The production resembles a thrilling movie chase scene. The motorist manages to escape, naturally, because of the AWD system.
Have a look if you haven’t seen it yet

It is a pretty fun spot that shows off the Rogue’s drivability on snow-covered roads and cleverly sneaks in its three-row seating.
The only problem is that this commercial is so VERY similar to one American Suzuki had a few years back for the all-wheel-drive version of its Kizashi sport sedan. Suzuki’s commercial, called Wicked Weather,” ran in 14 key US markets during the Super Bowl in 2011. So it got pretty good exposure. And it ran tons of other times before and after the Big Game. Even Suzuki’s snowmen, created by Siltanen & Partners, look an awfully lot like Nissan’s.
Judge for yourself

TBWA creatives could have dreamed this one up on their own. Or could it be that somewhere in the back of their brain’s memory file there was a glint recalling an ad with snowmen attacking a car with AWD?
Coincidence? We may never know, but you have to admit the executions are very, very close.
American Suzuki Motor Corp. isn’t likely to make much of a ruckus. The automaker is phasing out its car sales operations here in Chapter 11 bankruptcy court.
Chevy’s Crazy Kids
Speaking of coincidences, a Chevrolet Cruze commercial is getting lots of attention- in a good way. The spot, called “Speed Chaser,” for the Cruze broke during the Academy Awards broadcast and was made for a mere $4,000.
The :60 spot was created by South independent Korean filmmaker Jude Chun, who bested 72 other submissions from around the world in Chevy’s MOFILM , a global community of indie filmmakers. It shows children making the commercial, using props and special effects. The ad has a written on-screen disclaimer: “Children should not play in or around vehicles.” That was probably added by GM lawyers.
In one scene, one of the kids uses his hands to flip over a model-size Cruze, much to the dismay of a young female back-seat passenger. Have a peek

Many ads with cute children are well received with viewers and this one is no different. But Chevy got into big hot water in 2004 for a slick Corvette commercial that broke during the Summer Olympics. Called “A Boy’s Dream,” it showed a young boy putting the sports car through its paces, even taking the Vette airborn as a young girl behind the wheel of another Vette passes him in mid-air going in the other direction. It only ran once. General Motors quickly buckled under pressure from safety and advocacy groups afraid young kids would try to drive their parents’ cars like banchees.
It was a mistake in my mind to pull the ad from Campbell-Ewald in Warren, Michigan because it was clearly a dream sequence. If your kid doesn’t know the difference between reality and dreams you have bigger problems than this commercial.

Yes, this ad also had a written, on-screen disclaimer:  “This is a dream. Do not drive without a license. Obey all traffic laws.”
What a difference a decade makes, eh?
Dodge’s New Celeb Mouth
When it comes to Chrysler Group ads, one can expect to see celebrities.
Now here comes Joan Rivers stumping the beauty of Dodge-brand models in regional dealer ads from Doner in suburban Detroit.

They’re part of the automaker’s multi-brand “Award Season (sales) Event.”
In the spot for the Dart, Rivers touts the car’s beauty and power. “Look at the leather seats,” she coos. “They are softer than the leather on my face,” says Rivers, who regularly pokes fun at all the plastic surgery she’s had as host of “Fashion Police.”
The spots are airing through April in some 122 markets.
The comic’s appearance in the Dodge ad is shocking to a lot of people. “Are they reaching out to 70-year-olds,” wondered a Facebook poster.
The answer is no.
Rivers, whose career has spanned 5 decades, has managed to keep herself in the public eye and is winning over a younger generation. Rivers and these commercials should generate more positive buzz for Dodge.
————–

You can follow me, Jean Halliday, on LinkedIn and Facebook

On Twitter: @jhal2001

 

The Best Global Auto Ads

Drum roll, please.

The One Club today revealed the best international auto advertising  during the press days of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

The non-profit group, dedicated to recognizing advertising creativity, honored winners of the Automotive Advertising of the Year Awards.

BEST PRINT-OUTDOOR

Fiat and its Brazilian shop Leo Burnett Tailor in Sao Paulo topped the print-outdoor category. Their winning campaign, dubbed “Letters,” carried the safety message, warning of the dangers of texting while driving. The stark ads showed letters of the alphabet and used the negative space around the letters for people or things a driver might not see while texting and driving.

The One Club received 550 entries for all categories, which were rated in two rounds on a scale of 1-to-10 by a panel of 50 creative directors and journalists, including myself. Judges were to consider the originality of the ads, whether the work moves the brand forward and whether it creates high brand recall. The One Club said near the end of the second and final round of judging that the scores of the 56 semi-finalists were “very close.”

BEST ONLINE VIDEO

Honda Motor Co. Ltd. in Japan bested the online video category with its 1:29 short film from Dentsu in Tokyo called “Sound of Honda/Ayrton Senna 1989.” The video honors Senna, the late, legendary F1 race car driver and his fastest lap in 1989, when he set the world record qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix on the Suzuka circuit. Thanks to Honda in-vehicle technology, first introduced in the ’80s and used in Senna’s famous lap, the automaker was able to recreate that famous lap using engine sounds and LED lights at the Suzuki Circuit.

It may seem a big geeky, but it’s very cool.

Honda said it got more than 2 million views from Brazil, the US, Japan and the rest of world in just 2 months. Senna, a Brazilian, died 19 years ago after a crash during the San Marino Grand Prix. He drove a Honda-powered car for the Marlboro McLaren team in all 3 of his World Champion titles.

Last month, this video won the Grand Prize for the Entertainment Division of the 17th Japan Media Arts Festival.

BEST EXPERIENTIAL

BMW North America tied with Toyota Motor Sales USA’s Toyota Division in this category.

BMW wanted to build awareness for its upcoming, futuristic new i electric sub brand.

Working with its agency, kbs+ in Manhattan, BMW created a digital storefront “Window Into the Near Future” at street level in New York City. As cars passed in the window’s reflection, they were turned into BMW’s i3 and plug-in hybrid BMW i8 concept vehicles.

Toyota wanted to show bust the misperception that its Tundra pickup wasn’t as tough as its rivals from Detroit. Toyota and its ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi in Los Angeles, partnered in a unique opportunity – using the Tundra to tow the 300,000-pound Space Shuttle Endeavour to its new home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

Toyota got the word out with online videos and TV ads, which generated tons of news media coverage and social media buzz. Thousands of people lined the streets of Los Angeles to watch the pickup tow the shuttle a quarter-mile to the Science Center.

The Tundra Endeavour Campaign generated 131 million Twitter impressions, a billion unpaid media impressions and Tundra sales jumped by 31%. A Twitter drive raised more than $400,000 for the Science Center.

BEST INTERACTIVE

Hyundai Motor America found a way to spread the word about 2 new Elantra models, the Coupe and the GT. Hyundai’s ad agency, Innocean USA in Huntington Beach, California, created the “Driveway Decision Maker.”

Consumers could choose an Elantra to take on a virtual test drive through a colorful digital world and land in their own driveway. Using  Google Street View, people could also see the Elantra in front of any location in the world, including the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Hyundai said the effort helped lift Elantra to the brand’s best-selling model.

BEST TELEVISION

Honda and Wieden+Kennedy in London hit another one out of the park in Europe with a clever corporate ad that showed off the company’s innovation and products.

The “Hands” film, aimed at the UK,  is simply a delight to watch and was one I highly praised here in AutoAdOpolis last September.

The film went viral and has already tallied more than 10-million views on You Tube.

People’s Choice

Nearly 20,000 visitors to The One Club’s site tapped Honda Motor Europe’s “Illusions” TV spot as Public Choice winner. Created by McGarryBowen in London, the ad for the launch of Honda’s CR-V 1.6 Diesel showed a montage of optical illusions to position the SUV as a big car experience with smaller car costs.

Bravo to all the winners!

Last year was the first year The One Club honored top car advertising during the press days of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. In 2012, the group presented awards to the top 10 ads from the prior 25 years.

MAKING TRACKS: Congrats to Paul Edwards,  promoted at General Motors to VP of Chevrolet marketing in the US. Edwards, 44, had been executive director of GM’s global marketing since 2010. He joined GM in 1992 and succeeds Chris Perry, who resigned.

MAKING TRACKS II: Mike Jackson, has been named to the new role of president of Phelps, an independent, integrated marketing firm in Los Angeles. Among the stints during Jackson’s 30-year career in the ad business, was VP-marketing and advertising for GM in North America.

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Mystique of Dodge’s Ron Burgundy Blitz

Dodge’s over-the-top Durango blitz starring Will Ferrell, seems to be heading into the realm of cult status.

The campaign features dozens of video with the actor reprising his 2004 film role as the obnoxious 1970s’ “Anchorman” Ron Burgundy.

Yes, Chrysler Group CMO Olivier Francois is at it again, showing his penchant for using big names in advertising.

“The Dodge brand’s irreverent big tone and attitude make Ron Burgundy the perfect pitchman for the new 2014 Dodge Durango,” he said.

The Dodge brand irreverent? Since when? I do recall the irreverent “that thing got a Hemi in it” Dodge ads with comic Jon Reep. But that was back in the DaimlerChrysler days. And those Hemi ads were for the Dodge Ram. Now Ram is a separate brand from Dodge.

Chrysler said it didn’t pay anything for Ferrell to appear in the campaign. That’s because this is a co-promotional deal. Every Durango ad touts the upcoming “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” movie with Farrell, arriving around Christmas. Don’t kid yourself, Chrysler is spending tens of millions of dollars in media promotion to promote this movie for Paramount Pictures.

The buzz for the Durango push has been incredible, already attracting 15 million views on YouTube since hitting national television in October. The media push includes print, Facebook and Twitter.

If you have somehow miraculously missed seeing any of these commercials from Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, here is one of the latest, posted December 7, touting the Durango’s good looks

In just 4 days this attracted almost 90,400 views.

Dodge’s ad agency, Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, worked with Farrell’s Funny Or Die website to write the spots.

The news coverage of this enormous campaign has been mind-boggling. Traffic to Durango’s web site has jumped by 80%. Most important, Durango sales have increased dramatically: 59% higher in October and 36% in November versus the same year-ago months.

And what would a major blitz be without a sweepstakes? There was also a 6-day online contest last month to win a 2014 Durango and other prizes. Visitors to Handsonronburgundy.com had to keep their “hands” (via their mouse) on the Anchorman the longest. The contest kicked off online with a YouTube video that, even though the contest is over, is still attracting views, now topping 287,000.

Are you laughing yet?

Several fellow reporters have told come to me puzzled about the work, saying “I don’t get it.” They, like myself, are baby boomers.

Simply put, this work is not for us. It’s aimed at a younger target.

My unscientific research reveals that younger people have a very different sense of humor and definition of funny than boomers. Think of TV’s “The Office.” The show is wildly popular even though plenty of us boomers don’t “get” it.

And thus it is with Mr. Burgundy and Dodge.

I must admit that the work breaks through the clutter. With some 70 executions- how could it not? The Burgundy character in his tacky outfit, bad hair and clueless attitude pulls viewers in like a magnet whether you saw or even know of the first “Anchorman” movie.This is not your father’s car advertising. The draw is similar to the “rubber-necking” effect of motorists slowing to a virtual stand still to check out traffic accidents. It’s advertising you might love to hate.

Speaking of fender benders, Ferrell called the Durango “a terrible car” in an interview with Conan O’Brien, a few weeks ago. “They gave me one for free, and I drove it four feet and the thing cracked in half,” he told the late-night host.

Ouch!

Doing some quick PR work, Chrysler explained that Ferrell was merely acting as Ron Burgundy and they weren’t upset.

But quite a few of online comments reacting on YouTube to the segment agreed with Ferrell and blasted Chrysler quality. Not exactly a very good thing. Not at all.

You’ve got to wonder whether Ferrell will be back as a Dodge spokesman for Anchorman 3.

My guess is no.

MAKING TRACKS: Brent Dewar joins NASCAR as COO. Dewar worked at GM from 1978 to 2010, with stints that included VP of Chevy globally and VP of marketing and sales.

MAKING TRACKS II: Gareth Kay becomes co-owner of the new San Francisco office of Minneapolis-based creative consultancy Zeus Jones and will also be founding partner of the West Coast office. Kay was chief strategy officer at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco.  His resume includes stops at Modernista, Lowe and TBWA.

Follow me, Jean Halliday, on LinkedIn and Facebook and on Twitter :@jhal2001

*This first appeared as Jean Halliday’s “AdRant” in CNWs subscriber-only, online auto industry report.

(This first ran as

W+K “Hands” Honda a Hit

Honda hit another one out of the park in Europe with a clever corporate ad from Wieden + Kennedy, London.

The spot, dubbed “Hands,” shows off the company’s range of products under its corporate ad tag “The Power of Dreams.”

It runs nearly 2 minutes. The work is so captivating, it sucks the viewer in and the time flies. That’s no easy task in today’s mile-a-minute culture of media bombardment.

Simplicity is the key here. The only narration is at the start: “Let’s see what curiosity can do.”

If you haven’t seen it…you MUST check it out to see what GREAT auto advertising looks like.

In the 11 weeks since Honda posted it on YouTube, it’s tallied nearly 7.3-million views.

That’s a hit in my book. I predict this spot is going to be as hot as “Cog,” that famous, similarly-long spot Wieden + Kennedy, London, did back in 2003 for Honda’s the Accord in Europe.

Wieden, founded in Portland, is one of the largest independent ad agencies left in this world. The agency has also created lots of memorable work for Chrysler Group.

Kudos to the crew at W+K in London!

MAKING TRACKS: John Felice, who was general manager of Ford Lincoln Sales since fall 2011, moves up the ladder in October to VP-marketing, sales and service in the US.

Felice, will  succeed his boss, Ken  Czubay, who is retiring. Felice joined Ford in spring 1984. His stints at Ford include truck product marketing manager at the Ford Division in the US and Exec Director, marketing, sales and service for Ford Asia-Pacific & Africa.

SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: AutoAdOpolis doesn’t normally stump for causes. But a non-profit is trying to save Ford’s historic Highland Park plant, the birthplace of industrial mass production and the $5-a-day wage that fueled America’s middle class. It’s sad that other parts of the world cherish their iconic places and here in America we simply let them deteriorate – or tear them down.

The Woodward Avenue Action Association is in the midst of a fundraiser to buy property to set up a visitors center for tours of the old Model T plant.

People wanting to help should visit

http://www.crowdrise.com/5aday

Donations can be just $5. The group is also looking for corporate sponsors. For more info, go to  www.woordwardavenue.org

Automotive Heritage Welcome Center

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Ford Mimics Movie Ads

Auto advertising for seasonal clear-out sales are often boring. Many look the same.

The most common ingredients are running footage, someone talking VERY loudly and on-screen deals. Sometimes the marketers use existing commercials, but shorten them to add in info about the special deals.

The Ford brand thinks it has a better idea for its sales event this summer.

The Big Idea for Ford’s so-called “Summer Spectacular”event stemmed from the annual hot-weather blockbuster season for movies.

Each of the dozen new : 30 spots looks like a movie trailer. The first few seconds of all the spots are the same, showing the name “Ford,” but no cars. In addition, there’s four separate versions aimed at the Hispanic market, starring actor Cristian de la Fuente.

The brand believes the executions will not only break through the clutter, but boost the brand’s image and consideration, David Mondragon, general marketing manager for Ford and Lincoln, told me. Ford has increased favorable opinion on its brand by 20 points since 2008.

Ford’s ad agency, WPP Group’s TeamDetroit in Dearborn, tapped two Hollywood directors known for their prolific work on movie trailers. Kurt Mattila and Kyle Cooper, both of Prologue Films,have worked on movie trailers, including 2008’s “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk,”: respectively.

Here’s one of my favorites– for the C-Max Hybrid- directed by Cooper

The Focus spot directed by Mattila features a love-sick vampire trying to convince his girlfriend not to break up with him. Other movie genres include the Super Duty pickup as a super hero; surfing for the Fiesta and a spy-chase for the Mustang GT.

But when you’re creating so many unique spots, there’s bound to be one or two that just aren’t as compelling.

To me, that’s this one- for the Escape, called “The Heist”

While it does cover the bases for the Escape’s cool features and benefits, it just feels forced.

You can see all the spots here

 FYI, during a Google hangout Ford’s social media maven Scott Monty did with director Mattila, it leaked that Ford will be making a special product announcement at Comic-Con International’s Convention coming up later this week in San Diego.

 In the past, Ford has used TV star and narrator Mike Rowe for sales events. Mondragon told me Rowe “is a great asset for Ford,” having narrated the recently-ended Eco Boost Challenge ads, and still doing Ford service and and truck ads.

Earlier this year, the brand’s regional dealer advertising adopted the same ad creative process used by the national team. Instead of just TeamDetroit developing the creative, multiple WPP shops get Ford’s brief and submit ideas, Mondragon said.

The TV buy includes both national and regional, airing through August. Ford and its regional dealer ad associations are spending as much on media for this as for the national buy. The buy includes 90% of movie theaters in the US during July and August, says. Mondragon, who served CEO of Ford of Canada for more than three years,

To extend buzz and reach, the media plan is integrated with a movie-ticket giveaway on moviefone.com, called the Summer Spectacular Movie Ticket Giveaway plus $3 off movie rentals on Amazon.com.

Ford will soon be announcing four movie nights that will take over theaters to display vehicles, show the ads and offer a movie to hand-raisers. Dealers will also be inviting customers.

The automaker started the Ford Summer Spectacular Giveaway of 2013 models this month. To enter to win one of the 10 vehicles, visitors to fordeventgiveaway.com must view videos touting the product features and benefits. The site has a link to Facebook if visitors want to get their friends involved.

It’s encouraging to see Ford trying something different for a sales event.

Doing something different doesn’t always work, as evidenced by the Limited Engagement Spring Event work this year from Nissan’s Infiniti brand.

Check it out and you’ll see what I mean

At first glance doesn’t it seem to be a clothing commercial? It IS visually interesting, but it takes too long to get to the point. Sorry, TBWA/Chiat/Day- it’s off the mark.

One male viewer on YouTube posted this wise crack :“Guys, the takeaway from this commercial is: Drive an Infiniti and the ladies’ clothes will just fall right off “

Clearly, that wasn’t what Infiniti was going for.

 MAKING TRACKS: Congrats to David Murphy, who is moving to Michigan to become president-USA of WPP’s TeamDetroit in Dearborn on August 1.

Murphy has worked on car accounts over his career, including Lincoln, Jaguar, Land Rover and Toyota.

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Lexus New Global Ad is “Amazing?”

It is sometimes surprising to see ads that get approved by clients and make it into our dens and onto our digital devices.

Such is the case with the first commercial from a new global brand campaign for Lexus, created by CHI & Partners, London.

Directed by big-name British director Daniel Kleinman, the spot shows a despondent 11-foot,  robot-looking puppet moving through a city in search of…..something.

This search goes on way too long, as viewers ponder what the hell is being sold here.

The creature finally finds a mate. No voiceover is used throughout the entire 1:30 online version of the ad, only the the haunting voice of Kristina Train singing “I’m Wandering.”

It is not until the final two seconds of the commercial that we actually see a Lexus with the words “Amazing in Motion” and the smaller “amazinginmotion.com web site. If you’re sharp enough to notice, the same “Amazing in Motion” words accompanied by the smaller “Created by Lexus” “appear on screen for the first two seconds of the longer video on You Tube.

Here’s the first spot, called “Steps,” that is playing all around the world

Excuse me, folks, but what does this have to do with Lexus? I honestly do not get the branding part of this first spot. What does it really tell us about Lexus?

How about nothing! Seems like a big waste of a lot of money!

You can bet Lexus paid big bucks for: Kleinman to direct; licensing Train’s music; and  creating these giant puppets.

Kleinman is no slouch. He’s won top awards for his ad work at Cannes, directed more than 100 music videos for big-name stars, and created the title sequences for the James Bond’ movie series from 1995 to 2006, returning in 2012 for “Skyfall.” He is co-founder of production company Rattling Stick.

But the ad looks more like a music video or movie promo than an ad for Lexus. Maybe that’s the point, but someone sold Lexus a bill of goods with this strategy.

Check out the Amazing in Motion web site, which thus far is a never-ending patting on the backs of the people who created these 11-foot puppets. And you can see a lot of the same info in behind-the-scenes videos on You Tube. Oh gee, they used a cool 3-D printer! Yeah, that’s a cool piece of technology, but SO WHAT?

Incredibly, I couldn’t find any Lexus vehicles on the site. Maybe that comes later. Along with some “Amazing” ads ……..hopefully.

When Lexus debuted in the US in 1989, it had some of the best advertising in the luxury-car category. Team One and the Lexus brain trust put together an amazing brand strategy with executions that are still remembered today.

How did this brand veer so far off course?

Once the brand started to enter other markets around the world, someone at Lexus decided the brand needed a uniform, global brand blitz. And aren’t faceless puppets who don’t say anything perfect for every market?

This idea of latching onto the word “Amazing” goes back to at least June 2011. That’s when Lexus introduced a video called “Engineering Amazing” to tout its hybrid technology.

Someone at the mother ship sure liked the word “Amazing,” because it was back a year later in a Lexus Europe video called “Creating Amazing,” explaining how the automaker was doing that.

Sorry, Lexus, but “Amazing in Motion” doesn’t have the same gravitas as “The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection,” the line created by Team One for the brand’s US launch.

Now THAT was powerful.

We can only keep our collective fingers crossed and hope that upcoming executions in the “Amazing” blitz are much more relevant to brand Lexus.

Meanwhile, luxury car brand Audi is getting a ton of buzz from an online-only video, timed beautifully to coincide with the new “Star Trek Into Darkness” movie. The video, created by Audi of America’s PR shop, PMK BNC, is dubbed “The Challenge,” pitting Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek’s original Spock, against the newest Spock movie actor, Zachary Quinto.

Quinto drives the Audi S7, while Nimoy is in a Mercedes. The 2.5-minute video spot highlights the Mercedes’ shortcomings compared to the Audi. YouTube viewers are loving the fact that Nimoy sings “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins” while driving to his rendezvous with Quinto. (Nimoy recorded that campy tune for one of his albums back in the 60s).

Here it is if you haven’t seen it

The video seems to have widespread appeal: to Trekkies, Audi aficionados, Hobbit lovers and Quinto fans.

This is a clever and funny way to show old luxury vs. new luxury, a main brand position for Audi.

Audi tallied 5 million-plus views on YouTube in the first week. That’s huge, folks!

On the flip side, Lexus got just under 3,000 views in the US for its first “Amazing” video in its first 12 days.  But Kristina Train, the singer in the Lexus video, fared much better with the same video, reaching nearly 12,000 views on You Tube in just 4 days.

That pretty much says it all.

MAKING TRACKS: Brad Fogel joined Innocean Worldwide Americas this month as COO in Huntington Beach, California, the ad agency for Hyundai Motor America. Fogel had been president of Grey in San Francisco since May 2010, also overseeing the Los Angeles and Atlanta offices. Fogel played a role in Grey’s win of BMW of North America’s $80-million western regional account. He had been at Grey since 2007 and had stints at Publicis & Hal Riney, Hill, Holiday, Saatchi & Saatchi, Y&R and FCB. He also has experience on the client side, having served as CMO of 24 Hour Fitness for almost 3 years until July 2007.

He succeeds Jim Sanfilippo, who left last June after four years and is now a independent consultant.

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Also on Twitter @jhal2001

* A version of this first appeared as my monthly Ad Rap column in CNW Research’s online, subscriber-only, industry newsletter.

 

Mazda’s Game Changer?

Mazda North American Operations has had a dicey time elbowing for share of voice against much bigger players in the car business. Russell Wager, who joined Mazda last fall as VP of US marketing, admits there were months, like November and January, when the company didn’t advertise on US television.

“It’s okay for us to be the little guy,” Wager said.

But like Davis vs. Goliath, Mazda has a new attitude – and a new strategy – to boost its presence not only on TV, but also in search and digital, as well as high-profile places like Times Square and a promotional tie-in with an upcoming movie.

Wager compared Mazda to MLB’s Oakland A’s, which ranked last out of 30 teams for payroll costs, but still finished 4th overall. He declined to reveal specifics of Mazda’s ad budget.

Mazda spends about $280 million a year on ads and media, well below the major car brands.

Mazda is kicking off its biggest ad campaign in 13 years in May. Themed “Game Changers,” ads will highlight pioneers of the past who figured out a way to excel in their areas of expertise. You know, like Mazda.

The first work features Olympian Dick Fosbury, who revolutionized high jumping with his new “back-first” technique that won him a Gold Medal in 1968.

“We are going to look at game changers- people who used courage to defy conventional wisdom,” said Harvey Marco, chief creative officer of Garage Team Mazda, the brand’s ad agency since 2010. He said other big names featured in the ads will be Mary Quaint, the mini skirt inventor, and Laird Hamilton, the big-wave surfer who dreamed up tow-in surfing, which involves a jet ski pulling the skier into monstrous curls.

There will be plenty of people who never heard of  these folks. But that’s okay since the Big Idea should overcome that.

Although the campaign breaks for the launch of the 2014 Mazda6 sedan, the new umbrella theme will spread to all models, all branding, in all messaging, including events, regional dealer advertising and sales offers.

That approach differs from how Mazda did things in the past and the uniform ad platform “will make our (ad) fund go further,” says Wager. Mazda is boosting its digital and search spending by 40% this year from 2012. Wager says the brand will reduce its reliance on TV. Although broadcast will account for the biggest chunk of the overall ad spend, at 65%, Mazda will be on television all year. Although digital will comprise 25% of all spending, the undisclosed total is 40% more than 2012 (and includes search). Print and out-of-home ads account for the remaining 10% of the budget.

Look for Mazda to takeover Yahoo’s home page with jumper Fosbury, carrying the headline “This is how he changed the game. This is how we changed the game.” (with the new Mazda6).

And from now on, Mazda ads will show only red vehicles “so they  pop off the page,” Marco said.

Mazda’s new consumer research, done over the past 5 months, and new analytics approach, will boost retail sales and reach, Wager said.

Mazda partnered with the upcoming space thriller “Star Trek Into Darkness” as part of the 6’s launch. Check out this  :30 commercial Mazda did to help promote the film

It makes sense for Mazda to team up with this sci fi flick to tout its SKYACTIV Technology that improves driving, safety and fuel economy.  Mazda has an app related to the movie that assigns 5 missions, including a trip to a Mazda dealership to take and upload a photo. Dealers will also get movie tickets to share with  service customers.

Mazda takes the “Game Changer” theme to print and out-of-home ads, like this interactive board carrying the headline “When you  Change Everything, You Change Everything.”

I may be nitpicking, but this ad (shown) and several like it remind me an awful lot of the work BBDO Detroit did back in 1992 for the launch of the new Dodge Intrepid. “We’re Changing Everything,” was the ad theme for that campaign. Okay, that was back in 1992, so maybe I am nitpicking.

Anything that can get little Mazda more exposure is a good thing.

MAKING TRACKS: Life IS stranger than  fiction. Steve Majoros joins Cadillac as global marketing director. Majoros was a managing director at IPG’s Campbell-Ewald ad agency. C-E had been Chevrolet’s ad agency for more than 90 years and is said to be in the pitch for Cadillac’s business. What does that mean for Fallon, Caddy’s current ad shop? Bad news, probably.

MAKING TRACKS II : Word is Hyundai creative ad agency ,affiliate Innocean Worldwide Americas in Huntington Beach is close to hiring a new COO after a year-long search. Stay tuned, folks.

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and on Twitter @jhal2001

GM Moves Chevy to McCann, Starts Caddy Review

Well, it was probably the worst kept secret around.

And General Motors finally confirmed it, announcing late in the day today (March 14) it was consolidating Chevrolet’s global account at IPG’s McCann Worldwide. Strangely, GM distributed the statement, which was attributed to McCann.

Whatever.

The bottom line is this: Omnicom’s Goodby, Silverstein & Partners is out.

Goodby won the Chevy account in 2010 without a review shortly after the arrival of Joel Ewanick as CMO. Ewanick had worked with Goodby during his years heading Porsche marketing and also for a while at Hyundai.

Shortly before Ewanick was forced out last year, GM pushed Goodby into that silly 50-50 venture with McCann to handle Chevy, called Commonwealth. I predicted it was a bad idea to try to get 2 holding companies to work together.

Is Chevy’s “Global” Creative Solution A Good Idea?

GM should have known better since it had tried it before on the media side… and it flopped.

Most AutoAdOpolis readers know I have not been a big fan of most of Goodby’s work. I don’t put all the blame on the agency because it has done some great work for other clients.

The smoke signals for Goodby’s demise really started billowing late last year when GM’s Alan Batey, interim CMO, (pictured below) moved oversight of the crucial Chevy Silverado launch to Publicis’ Leo Burnett.

Burnett  also has GMC and Buick and one could certainly argue that work for those two brands hasn’t exactly been setting the world on fire.

So one has to wonder why Batey chose to only fiddle with the agencies for only 2 of 4 GM US vehicle brands, essentially giving Burnett a free pass.

But even more curious is Batey’s timing.

After all, Tim Mahoney will start April 1 as GM’s newly-hired global CMO for Chevrolet. Mahoney, on vacation this month after leaving VW of America, will also be global GM marketing operations leader, indicating he’ll also oversee other car brands. He’ll report to Batey.

GM has been mum on whether Batey, also VP of sales and service in the US, will remain interim global CMO. So Mahoney could well be Batey’s successor. So, if Batey wanted to make some big moves and undo most of what Ewanick did, he knew he had to hurry.

But why not wait until Mahoney arrives?

Batey’s marketing power plays would have had to have been okayed from the top, since Batey reports to GM Chairman-CEO Dan Akerson.

This entire mess doesn’t portray GM in a very positive light.

What the hell are you guys thinking?

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On Twitter @jhal2001