automotive

Buick Meets Hellogoodbye In Web Campaign

HellogoodbyeThere is nothing at all old about Buick these days. The fastest-growing auto brand in the world is starting to bring in new owners from import brands and is lowering the marque's median owner age in the process. Marketing strategy focused on social platforms, tactical promotional relationships, and experiences is helping.

Over the past few months, Buick has been involved in:

multiple mobile in-app games on the Greystripe mobile network;

  • a sponsorship deal with the NCAA on a custom microsite and mobile destination to showcase the Buick Human Highlight Reel;
  • a partnership with Amazon for the Kindle launch;
  • a QR-code effort tied to a custom content and mobile site for 2012 Buick Vehicle Catalogues @ Dealers that went live in August;
  • eAssist mobile games around hybrid technology for Regal and LaCrosse eAssist, which goes live late November;
  • and a new version of its social/video/user-content Momentoftruch.com platform going live in December, now with HTML 5 so it can be used by tablet owners.

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Now, there is Hellogoodbye. The skinny is that Hellogoodbye, an ascendant Long Beach, Calif.-based powerpop indie band, is starring in a Web documentary in which it drives a Buick Regal across the desert, seeking inspiration for a song from weird Easter Island-type sculptures and crumbling Beechcraft fuselages scattered about the empty wastes of the American Southwest. 

The documentary, produced by Buick's digital agency Digitas, also happens to serve a couple of more mundane purposes: It's meant to put some youthful glow on Buick and the 2012 Buick Regal Turbo, and also spotlight the Harman/Kardon audiophile-ready system in the car.

Buick got the band to do a two-day road trip in the Regal Turbo, starting in Vegas and wending its way across the deserts of Nevada. For its part, the band had to write a song about the experience, all of which is detailed in the documentary, "One From The Road."

How does Buick get the band’s fans to be its fans? The song, "Killing Time," is only on Buick's Facebook page; the movie is on Hellogoodbye's YouTube channel; and a branded cut of the film lives on Buick.com and Buick's YouTube channel.

Chris Ayotte, Buick's national marketing manager for mid-sized cars, tells Marketing Daily that the GM brand had a great sound system and needed to find a way to talk about it. "We looked at the sound system we had in the new Regal and even the Lacrosse and felt we hadn't put enough messaging behind the fact that Harman/Kardon had developed a system customized for the cabins of both vehicles. We needed a really creative way to tell that story."

Ayotte says the band had 24 hours to come up with a road-trip-inspired song and record it. In the documentary, they listen to the final mix through the Harman/Kardon system in the car itself -- a kind of audio meta experience. "We saw that this could be the first time an auto brand took part in the creation and digital debut of new song," he says, adding that the point was not to advertise the car. "We were able to integrate without being overtly commercial."

Erica Melia, vice president/group director of marketing at Digitas, says the agency looked at a lot of bands "and we felt Hellogoodbye were upbeat and approachable, and they had a big social following. I think the goal was to create an inspiring piece of content that demonstrated the value of the brands [Buick and Harman/Kardon]." 

Melia explains that the content also includes a branded cut of the video intended to appeal to auto enthusiasts, and that the effort is part of Buick's larger positioning established earlier this year. "It is aligned with the larger campaign around Buick as a human kind of luxury, so this extension is truly an example of active branding, where we demonstrate value by aligning with consumers' passions, interests and needs. It's demonstrating how the brand can get behind this by showcasing inspiration and creativity that goes behind crafting a song."

The company is launching its first compact luxury car, the Verano, at the end of the year, and Ayotte says the company is attracting a new stream of buyers "that even a few years ago wouldn't have had us on their consideration set." He says 50% of Enclave buyers are new to Buick and import-oriented.

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