Reuters reports that GM is upping its sponsorship and promotional spending, as it seeks to re-establish its media presence which retracted considerably during and after its bailout and bankruptcy. In addition to boosting sports sponsorships and
co-producing TV shows, like a documentary about a year in the life of a Detroit fire station or a three-part Discovery series on the city,
GM has another strategy in mind as well: product placement for the Chevy Volt. According to the report
GM also is in talks with a reality TV producer about the inclusion of the automaker’s new plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt car in a show under development
but what about movies? After all, if Chrysler (which has plans for only one niche electric vehicle, the Fiat 500 EV) can feature heavily in a movie which was promoted using the line “Electric cars are gay” (see video above), surely GM could get a movie made called “Range Anxiety” in which the Volt rescues the President’s daughter from an evil, but range-limited foreign car by driving farther than 100 miles. Subtle, right? Why don’t I just stick to blogging and let you come up with Volt product placement ideas.
How about in a remake of “the night the lights went out in georgia”
“Why don’t I just stick to blogging and let you come up with Volt product placement ideas.”
Nah, keep going, you were just getting started, but you played it right by leaving me wanting more!
Product placement: Movies – the next “Transformers” installment. The Tonight Show where celebrities drive around a closed course dodging stuff…wait…sorry, that’s been done.
I don’t have an answer for you but I am reminded the television shows I watched in my youth that typically had arrangements with car makers for exclusive product placements. On Bewitched you only saw Chevrolets. Quinn-Martin productions were always all Fords as was The Outer Limits and Dragnet. Chrysler furnished the cars for the Beverly Hillbillies. Of course, in those shows not only did everyone drive that particular make, everybody drove a new car.
Oh man, I forgot about “Bonanza”! The memory of Dinah Shore driving across the Golden Gate Bridge is forever burnt in my mind. Fell in love with her before I knew what love was! The cars were special, too, by the way! I’m gettin’ old!
Is TV the crucial ad medium as in the past when only a minimal number of channels were available?
Or, has the humongous number of channels led to a reduction in per-channel ad cost to allow placing ads upon more channels so as to reach the targeted audience(s).
Supposedly the marketing and marketing-related folks will possess the info, knowledge and experience to ascertain what and where to do “it” to meet objectives.
Many media-types to select from.
Print, broadcast, etc.
Then there are the sub-types; print: dailies, monthlies, general interest, special-interest……
but what was true in the not-so-distant past has altered.
Note the vast decline in newspaper readership.
Even radio has taken a hit.
TV audiences diluted for various reasons.
The Web has had a growing influence but it is also a medium with many aspects.
So many routes to choose.
I just don’t expect much out-of-the-box thinking or ideas by the business-suit-clad corporate droids infesting the offices of corporate GMC.
Marketing is a science and an art.
Using the Web generally allows very quick determinations of the “vitality” of an ad campaign.
Other media-types typically require longer periods of determination.
Combining the Web with other media(s) assists in ascertaining effectiveness…
did the hits to the mentioned site upon the TV site rise immediately after an ad appeared? How long did the enterer remain? Did they dig through the Web page? Perhaps fill out a form for more info; perhaps a snail mail brochure to arrive in a few days?
Maybe an entry in a contest!!!!!!!
Win a real manual gear shift knob from the newest Corvette!!!!!!!!
DVDs with info, pics etc. made available; at the least at dealerships.
So MANY routes/venues to use/utilize.
Heck…. a newer trend is to create an “app” for the milling throng to shove into their hand-held communicative device.
(Note: the Coot has a VERY basic cell phone turned off so as not to drain the batteries nestled within the box with nary a glove for use ONLY in case of breakdown or accident to call out for HELP!!!!!!! or to report a criminal infraction or whatever. An “on” cellphone so other humans can reach out and contact me? Pshaw. They can call the shanty’s land-line and if I am there I may answer. Or the embedded answering device can take a message. Or, write/type a letter. Or send an e-mail. Or knock upon the shanty’s front barrier that MAY be opened. Maybe not. Social Coot? In the sick, perverted, diseased generally disgusting USA society of today? NAY!!!!!!!!!).
“Volt Product Placement.”
A horde of variables.
So MANY possible routes.
Marketing in general used to be a bit more basic.
PCs are an invaluable tool in ascertaining marketing effectiveness and enhanced communication allowed via the Web assists marketers while adding complexities.
The Coot is unable to offer advice BUT……………….
do remain flexible.
Do something, even if it is “wrong.”
At least try something but have a back-up plan (or plans) ready to implement if the first attempt does not meet expectations.
If ALL attempts fail…. well, maybe the product is a failure!!!!!!!!!
Sheesh; if the shanty-bound one is aware of the above what’s going on with those highly-paid droids with their pensions and health insurance and sundry perks?
Oh, yeah….. the Coot was one of the working-poor of the blue-collar class for too many years and unworthy of consideration for inclusion among the “better folks” as revealed after attaining 4-year degree “rank” in my 40s where repeated mentions by the “business suit bunch” during the few interviews obtained almost always concentrated upon past jobs, not current abilities.
Oh well.
At least the shanty accepts me.
The show would be called recharge, and it would show families at recharging stations while their cars are recharged. There will be lots of cute pictures of kids asking: “When will get to Grandma’s, Daddy”.
While the title “Range Anxiety” just screams for a Hitchcockian thriller, a modern reboot of Route 66 seems like the best way to feature a car on a television show. Two good-looking guys, a car, and the open road, featuring a different good looking damsel in distress (or femme fatale) each week.
Nice idea, but they’d have to have a Volt convertible to do it right! Red, of course! Probably have to rename it to “Interstate 44” and all the drama take place at rest areas and truck stops. Doggone modern world!
A drop top would help but it’s not a must, and lacking a modern iconic highway (unless the Pacific Coast Highway would work?) you would need another organizing theme for the never ending roadtrip. Here’s the IMdb summary of the old show:
Only fiction series written & shot all over North America. Two young adventurers in a Corvette explore early 60’s social problems and changing mores, looking for the right place to settle down while seeking themselves.
That sounds to me like it could still work today. The Vette was omnipresent but not really a third character, so the product placement permeated the show without being misplaced or oppressive. Throw in a little comedy business around recharging (finding an electrical outlet, who’s turn it is to plug it in, making deals with lonely widows for a little “juice”) during the weekly dramatic arc and you’ve got a show. I wonder how many Vettes were sold over the years as a direct result of guys who watched Route 66 and dreamed?
Edit: And, of course, you’ve got to have the perfect theme song for the show:
Clutch, you have this figured out pretty well. I do remember the Rte. 66 episode that took place in St. Louis (where I’m from) in Gaslight Square (a real hotspot at the time). Yeah, it might just work. Trouble is, who would run the show? The networks? Cable? Too many outlets and not enough viewers. I personally watch almost “0” TV anymore, and not any scheduled shows, mainly news. Your idea sounds better every minute!
Don’t worry, Michael Bay’s got another revisionist Transformers movie coming out; I’m sure the Volt will be featured prominently. Hopefully this time less racially offensive…
The Volt was in the last one, too. Didn’t get much more than a walk-on, though.
All I know about tv ads is that is the time I go to the kitchen or bathroom.
RoboCop!
Yes! lol, I remember it well and I remember the 6000SUX was rumored a direct shot at the Pontiac 6000.
I’d buy that for a dollar!
I envision a scenario in which the typical dimwit husband has to be informed by the more intelligent wife, daughter, or even son that no, the Volt is not out of gas, it just needs to be plugged in for a few hours. Or our hero drives at five mph on his last kwh of power to the recharging station to find three Nissan Leafs, a Tesla, and a forklift ahead of him. Or a Volt slides off the road in the snow and hits a power pole. Pole Volt!
Chevy’s best product placement is at the rental car lots. Improving advertising is much needed and great, but put a couple of Volts in each of the rental places at local airports and it will get the most notice like the rest of the lineup.
+1
Right up until the time those renters look around and realize, “I could’ve had a Hyundai.”
Top Gear
Or maybe Sesame Street
Too bad Barney isn’t on anymore
I suggest a crime show where the Volt runs over an important blind man crossing the street before the opening credits, because he couldn’t hear the car approach.
The detectives find the car, find out how the pedestrian warning system was disabled, and lead to the eventual arrest of an electronics engineer.
The engineer is assassinated by a hidden government agency before he can testify, leading the detectives to discover 2 seasons later that aliens will invade by 2012…
If GM won’t pay for the product placement, maybe Toyota will!
If my opinion counts for anything, the Volt is overexposed already. How does a car not (yet) available to be bought and driven be called North American Car of the year?
I’m surprised it wasn’t in StarTrek(2009) to go with the 67 Vette that James T Kirk ran over the cliff.
Any science fiction show will do until the car is actually on the road.
How about a remake of The Pretender series?
Our hero would drive his Volt around town – solving problems – but the darn thing only gets 93 mpg instead of 230 mpg. And on long trips it only gets 32 mpg. Then he stops at a hotel and asks if they have ‘electricity’, only to find that there it has no outdoor station sufficient to satisfy the Volt’s thirst for power. It would be an unending series of disappointing or near-death experiences for the Voltec drivetrain.
So far, the most blatant and awkward product placement I’ve seen has been — predictably — GM’s stilted facetime on the TNT series “Men of a Certain Age.”
Having a few characters work at a failing Chevy store isn’t bad. (One could even argue it’s augmented reality.) Having those characters attend the GM display — and ONLY the GM display — at an auto show is worse, but still acceptable.
Forcing Andre Braugher to call the Volt a “game-changer” during a 20-second promotional “conversation,” though, offends me as a human being.
(Or at least as a TV watcher who remembers that actor’s performance in “Homicide: Life on the Streets,” and his character’s interactions with an endless series crappy Cavaliers.)
I haven’t watched that show but I have seen ads for it, doesn’t look like much. Ray Romano is pretty irritating even at his best. But it is a shame to hear that a great actor like Andre Braugher is stuck doing that. He was one of the all time greats in Homocide.
The show isn’t bad… it’s actually one of my favorites. Even Romano is tolerable (which I found surprising.)
The overall quality of the show makes the constant GM pandering that much more jarring.
“The overall quality of the show makes the constant GM pandering that much more jarring.”
I really agree with this statement. I’m surprised the show and GM would feel such ham-handed product placement would work. I come away more irritated by the blatant name-dropping of the Chevy products than anything else. Otherwise the dealership storyline would come off more sympathetic thus being a positive for GM.