Get ready for the onslaught - GM plans to celebrate New Year's with marketing blitz
Ah, that mythical 18-34 demographic. So celebrated in our popular culture, so coveted by brands, so elusive and fickle. They do like to party, though, and what better way to try and capture a little of their deficient attention span than to plaster your logo and brand all over the first huge party of the year? That's what Chevrolet will be doing to fulfill it's self-appointed role as the Times Square celebrations "official ride". Kind of ironic when you think about trying to drive in Midtown at any time, let alone a holiday. There's no way your Chevy's gonna get anywhere near Dick Clark that night.GM's making quite the holiday push, actually. Chevrolet plans to cash in on hats adorned with the bowtie logo and a new billboard, all of which should be captured by cameras from several networks. They'll also be running spots for the Cobalt, HHR, Impala, and Malibu. Pontiac will be sponsoring a musical contest on Jimmy Kimmel Live and will host a band on their Pontiac Garage stage. Add to this the general ad blitz that makes up the GM Red Tag event, and it may feel like the GM show, punctuated by New Year's breaks.
[Source: Automotive News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gardiner Westbound 3:32PM (12/24/2006)
If its cars were better GM wouldn't have to spend so much on marketing. Perhaps it should decrease the advertising budget and apply the funds to improving engineering and quality control.
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dave 4:27PM (12/24/2006)
#l, get off your soapbox and join the real world. engineering and quality are way up, matching and surpassing almost every other manufacturer including toyota and lexus. perhaps if you put the x-box down and did some basic research, you'd know better. either you're 15 years old or you know nothing about cars.
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Rob Blasi 5:01PM (12/24/2006)
First off, #2, if #1 is a 15 year old kid then you should be ashamed of yourself because a kid just showed better grammar, syntax, and punctuation in one sentence than you did in your whole comment. At least he capitalized his proper nouns. You talk about the real world yet here you are attacking someone on Autoblog for having what you consider to be a poor opinion. Sure GM's quality has improved, but I'd still take a new Honda Civic anyday over the Chevy Cobalt or Pontiac G6 or whatever 'sport compact' GM would like to try next. Civics are still more reliable and they have the reputation to go with it.
And while GM's cars might be better now, they sure weren't a few years ago, and thats where the advertising plays a huge role in getting people to buy GM cars. It's unfortunate, #1, that the money couldn't be spent on making the cars even more superior to their competition, but without the ads people would be less likely to even consider GM cars as an option. Also, sometimes it doesn't matter how good the cars are. Saying you drive a brand new Lexus, BMW, or Cadillac will always make you sound more important than if you just bought a brand new Pontiac. It's all about reputation, something GM needs to spend a few million to help rebuild. Hopefully the new Camaro will fix everything... :)
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Brian 7:08PM (12/24/2006)
The folks on Madison Ave must have had a hard time snickering while selling this to the clueless check-writers over at GM.
Sure, the 18-34 demographic likes to party. Which means that they aren't going to sitting on TV watching the party in Times Square. Similarly, few of them are going to be at the party in Times Square because they will be at actual parties. You know, those events with beer and champagne and music and stuff.
By the way, #3... The new Camaro has been beaten like the proverbial dead horse. It doesn't even come out for another two years and I'm sick of hearing about it.
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mblommel 10:27PM (12/24/2006)
No. 4 is correct, who in the 18-34 demographic that isn't a douche is going to be home watching Dick Clark?
GM wouldn't have any trouble selling lots of cars to 18-34 year olds if they made cars those folks wanted and could afford. Besides the Cobalt what else does the general have to offer? An HHR? Not likely.
I'm sure the Camaro will have a appeal, but like the rest of the retro-musclecars anything with some power under the hood will be priced out of the reach of your average young person.
Scion doesn't seem to be having a problem selling cars to kids... Oh wait, they make a reliable car that doesn't look like a refugee from a rental car lot AND they sell it for about $15K. To top it all off they don't use events hosted by geezers to market their product. Wow, those Scion guys must be like geniuses or something, how did they think all that up?
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artie43 10:41AM (12/25/2006)
Well I am an old geezer and I'm not going to home watching TV on New Years Eve. Nevertheless I think this whole gimmick of spending $millions on promotions is like closing the gates after the livestock has left. Way too little too late. Recently a confidential document was released showing that GM thinks that a growing number of Americans are not even giving Detroit a shot at their new car business. Well my friends and family don't own Detroit products anymore. Don't seem to dislike Detroit but IMO they consider them second string. Detroit is reaping what they have sewn. Too bad, many people will get really hurt in the process. Just too much greed by the executives and UAW. They may have just killed off the goose that has been laying the golden eggs!!!No amount of glitz and glamour will cover their marketing and product deficiencies any more.
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Richard Warren 9:32AM (12/25/2006)
I'ts ADVERTISING, get over it.
Rather watch a car commercial or something like dish soap,orange floor cleaner or whatever?
And just a clue, if GM didn't Ford, Chrysler, Toyota whoever would be in the wings.
And---It's a tax write off.
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GhostDoggy 7:11PM (12/25/2006)
#2 (dave), if GM were 'all that and a bag of dimes' then why allow yourself to be perceived as needing so much advertising and offering so much in the deals department?
I'm not questioning GM's quality, unless we start talking about how their business is run (which isn't very well all things considering).
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uncle john 9:50PM (12/27/2006)
Oh wait, they make a reliable car that doesn't look like a refugee from a rental car lot AND they sell it for about $15K
Ever hear of the mysterious exploding sunroof? You must have - it's only in a Scion!
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V.S. 5:10PM (10/14/2007)
Look for GM stocks to hit $55 to $58 by the end of the year since Merrill Lynch has up-graded the stock to "buy". The MACD trend is above the signal line and Goldman & Sachs has been purchasing GM on the sidelines also.....
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