automotive

Buick's 'Photoshoot' Ads Telegraph Change

Buick's ad spot General Motors' Buick brand has two tasks at hand, and it has to accomplish both or it won't accomplish either: The division must launch the 2010 Lacrosse sedan and at the same time relaunch the brand itself.

That's because making Lacrosse a bona fide hit has to do with more than just the car; Buick needs to lure customers wandering Lexus and Acura showrooms across the street by convincing them that Buick, with one of the oldest consumer bases in the business, is not grandpa's ride anymore. To its credit, Buick has a hit with the Enclave SUV, which has brought in new consumers and has gotten rave reviews.

The SUV is featured in a divisional effort that launched last month with the tag, "Take a look at me now," and cheeky print and TV creative with pop-culture references ("Nip. Tuck. Weld" is one of the print headlines) and a youthful, irreverent tone.

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Buick La Crosse CXS The company last week launched the second of three 60-second ads for Lacrosse and the Enclave SUV, in which a young, affected director type treats the cars as models at a fashion shoot. The trio of "Photoshoot" ads will conclude with a spot launching next week that features just the Lacrosse.

Cheryl Catton, general director of advertising and promotions for the Buick-Pontiac-GMC channel and former general director of car marketing for Chevrolet, says Buick will have run a total of six spots for Lacrosse through September.

"We have to make the products relevant and change the image of the brand," she says. "There are a lot of people who know us and give us credit for dependability and comfort; that's positive, but then there are a lot of people who don't know us or think of the brand historically."

Catton says the goal was to get out advertising 45 to 50 days in advance of having product on the ground, "and start to telegraph a change at Buick, which we did through the 'Photoshoot' ads."

She says "Photoshoot" will be followed with two more spots coming next month that will be "very linear"; they will be about product, design and features. "Then we have two more in the September time frame that start to telegraph a lot more feature benefits." She says that TV, which makes up less than 50% of the marketing mix, includes a regional media-buy tactic based on zip codes of strong prospects.

"We told Starcom MediaVest [GM's media buyer] that we had to work on opinion and consideration for the Buick brand," she says, "So where would we be best served to put our dollars?" Buick is supporting national TV with "micro-local" marketing in nine key markets with digital, experiential, direct-mail, and local radio and spot TV. "So we can get really efficient in terms of where we pinpoint our dollar efforts," she says.

Also on deck is a large out-of-home plan, and digital plan and the Buick Open, which will be a launch platform for Lacrosse. "This year we drove a lot more product integration," says Catton. Tickets, which hitherto bore an image of the Buick logo, will have an image of the car.

"Every piece of collateral developed for this tournament is about Lacrosse," she says. Buick will have "Lacrosse Landing" at the tournament where the company will offer premier seating on the 17th hole for looking over the car.

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