There is a guy in San Francisco who does television spots for hisGM dealership. He’s an old pudgy guy who talks very loud and is annoying. In a classic example of being ill-advised, the man’s last commercial shows him in a black leather coat wearing Ray Ban knock-offs holding a shotgun. Two moderately unatractive ladies flank his sides in moderately ugly black cocktail dresses. Pudgy man ends the commercial by cocking the shotgun and proclaiming “We are Professional Grade.” Hardly.
The point I am getting at is in reference to local advertisers running with a national brand. The car lots do it quite a bit, usually with little success. What’s unfortunate is that corporate spends millions of dollars to create an identity for bilion dollar businesses, only to let non-marketing savy people send a message out to the general audience. For one, it devalues the brand, and secondly, it destroys the hard work the brand managers have put into the overall branding.
There is an association of San Francisco Volvo dealers who just started running radio spots that are unique and catch the listener’s attention. The premise is that a good story is worth listening to and sometimes you never want it to end. And it follows that being safe in a Volvo will help extend the story. The radio spot starts telling the story, but does not finish it. To hear the rest of the story, listenters must go to the association’s website. What they did with the spot was take something we all think of when we think Volvo: Safety, and then asked the listeners to followup by going to the website. The site is clean, professional, and the stories are actually pretty good (maybe a little long). The narrators of the stories online and on the radio are great. For once, I was surpised to see a local car advertisement that didn’t damage the brand, but uniquely used it. It’s too bad that for every one like this, we’ve got pudgy man with his shotgun.
