Admittedly, my live TV viewing time increases dramatically
when our beloved St. Louis Cardinals are in the playoffs. And not just more TV, but I tune into a
station that usually gets no attention on my TV set – TBS.
As to be expected, every advertiser who is trying to reach
the male 25-54 general-market is spending heavily between innings to get my
attention. In general I now know that I
need a new car, there is a better bath soap designed for men and that when the
time is right there is a pill available.
For the most part these ads all just blur together. Advertisers are not doing a great job as a
whole of differentiating their product.
Most of them are playing conservatively.
They are relying on “tried and true” marketing tactics in their
ads. Herein lies the issue. When many advertisers are coming into my home
with similar messages, I remember none of them.
More importantly, I don’t want to talk about any of them. And more important still, I don’t want to buy
any of them.
It is worth noting two brands that surveyed the situation,
understand the environment and were able to convince their upper management
that they need to have a unique selling proposition to stand out to the viewer
who is going to watch 24 hours of one channel over a 10 day period.
I can’t tell you how many automobile brands are advertising
during the playoffs on TBS, let’s just say “all of them”. But no one has done a better job than Chevy
and Dodge so far. And what makes those
two brands stand out is that they took two very different approaches, yet both
approach was right for their product.
First is Chevy Malibu.
I have driven Chevy Malibu’s before.
They were my company car for about two and a half years. Let me tell you, there was nothing that
stands out about a Chevy Malibu (to be fair, that was 1998-2000 so maybe they
have upped their game). But I think that
the general public would agree that a Malibu has a very blah reputation. This is where Chevy got smart and gave their
audience a personality. They are selling
to suburban dad who is working his way up the ladder and also a proud father.
But their ad did not show a bunch of b-roll images of the
Malibu hugging the curves of the Pacific Coast Highway. It did not show it “on a closed track with
professional drivers”. It focused on who
the driver was, what he is feeling, and who he thought he was. The tag line is what brought it all together
for me, “the car for the richest guys on
earth.” WOW! That says something to the target
audience. That positions the brand
better than any MPG statement or ’13 cup holders’ statement that Chevy has been
famous for touting. This is a brand (and
an agency) that knows the audience well and was willing to stand up to the
status-quo in the mid-size sedan market.
I want to be one of the “richest guys on earth” and now there is a car
(with imagery and message) that backs up their statement. I am not their target, but I can say that if
I was…I would be intrigued. And that ad
would have gotten me to add Chevy Malibu to my consideration set. I would bet that it is working with their
core audience.
The other ad is for the Dodge Durango. While Chevy gives a gentle tug at the dad’s
heartstrings Dodge goes straight for the funny bone. A genius, and likely very expensive, cross
promotion with the much-anticipated movie, Anchorman 2 brings out the best in
both brands. Will Ferrell is pretty much
a homerun to this target audience, and having him in Ron Burgundy character
would be the grand slam equivalent since we are talking baseball. Dodge does use their ad to talk about miles
per gallon and horsepower and other things that are easily copied by other
SUV’s…but when they do it with humor it stands out, it is interesting, it is
worth rewinding. Wait! Did I just rewind
a commercial? Yep…several times. Oh, and then I reached for my iPad to find
more commercials from Dodge featuring Ron Burgundy. If Dodge was looking to engagement metrics to
measure their ad…they just got me. I am
now quoting Dodge commercials in my everyday life…”is this a gumball machine?, no, it’s a Dodge
Durango!”. Dodge is trying to stand
out in the crowded SUV market and thanks to a movie character that men from
25-54 can’t get enough of…Dodge is capturing incredibly high share of
mind. And since Anchorman 2 will not hit
theaters until December the ads have over two months to own the conversation
around the hype of the movie.
Additionally, what both brands have done is produced several
ads that run as a campaign. It is
important to understand the number of times the audience is going to see
commercials during the playoffs. I am
getting worn out on several brands that keep running the same commercial every
inning. Malibu and Durango mix up their
ads so that I am always intrigued by what the ad will be this time. Yes, I am anticipating branded messages. And that’s the key here. These brands have broken through the clutter
and become part of the entertainment.
They have done so in two different and smart ways. The marketers behind the ads know their
audience, understand the environment that the ads will be seen in and they
pushed to stand out from the crowd. They
did not go the conservative route; they took chances that were likely hard
internal sells. In my opinion, their
moves have paid off.
In this time of the year the moves on the field are
amplified. I think it is fair to say
that the moves by smart marketers can be amplified too.
