Brand: GM (General Motors)
Execution: TV - Super Bowl
Target: Japanese Car Buyers
Rating: ****
Reviewer: David

Description:
A robot on a GM assembly line drops a bolt.  The line stops as an alarm goes off.  The supervisor looks frowningly at the robot who looks and sounds ashamed.  All of the other robots and human workers look on.  The robot is let go and looks dejected.  He sees GM cars drive by and sadly remembers his job.  He tries a series of jobs including selling real estate and being a fast food drive-thru speaker box.  In abject desperation he throws himself off of a bridge.  All of the previous is to the song “All by Myself”. Then as the GM robot is sinking through the water he wakes up and realizes that he had a bad dream.   He is on the assembly line at night when it is not running.  The GM logo appears and a voiceover says, “The GM 100,000 mile warranty.  It’s got everyone at GM obsessed with quality.

What Works:
This is a brilliantly executed :60 second spot whose strong storytelling lent itself well to the epic nature of the Super Bowl.  The animation of the robot with minimalist movements and R2D2-like sounds adds a personality to a piece of metal and steel not unlike the personality that cars assume in the hands of their owners.  The spot singlemindedly focuses on the humiliation the robot feels for making a mistake on the assembly line which does support the underlying brand positioning of “obsession with quality.”  The over-the-top soundtrack works because the idea of a robot with emotions is amusing and novel, at least for an industrial robot.  The execution of this spot is nearly perfect given the concept.

What Doesn’t:
We think General Motors has made a strategic mistake with this spot by putting it under the GM logo.  Although General Motors and the GM brand name are familiar to most consumers, the brand is too broad to support such an ambitious claim.  Japanese companies still personify quality and GM’s attempt to pull the mantle of quality onto its shoulders is not credible.  Moreover, it’s not clear that a consumer buying a Chevy or a Saturn will think “GM quality” and associate it to these brands during purchase.  As well conceived and staged as it is, the mandate of this spot is far too broad.

A smarter path for GM would have been to pick a specific brand and focus relentlessly on improving the brand image along the lines of quality or durability.  Using the robot to launch a defiant “American Quality” pitch for Cadillac or Saturn would have been more effective.  Above all, GM needs to avoid challenging Toyota directly on quality (and arguing with consumers deeply held beliefs about this issue) and find a niche within this brand equity to own.

Bottom Line:
GMs robot has more personality than any Buick.

Brand: Hummer (General Motors)
Issue: Hummer puts itself in Happy Meals, New campaign to dispel myths about H3
Commentary by: David

We often comment on the brilliant or foolish choices that marketers make, but we rarely get to talk about a major brand doing both simultaneously.  General Motors has accomplished the unlikely with the brilliant move of putting toy Hummers in Happy Meals and the foolish move of creating an advertising campaign intended to combat misperceptions about the H3.

What is Brilliant:
Today, Jean Halliday at Adage comments on General Motor’s recent move to put toy Hummers into happy meals.  The compelling logic for this is two-fold.  Financially, this licensing deal is a bright spot for the troubled automaker which is one of the most aggressive licensee for its brands in the automotive industry.  The second motivation is brand seeding, which allows GM to get the Hummer brand into the hands of future consumers at an impressionable age.  Matchbox cars have long had the same effect, but carmakers seem to be waking up to the potential loyalty effects of early brand building.

This advertising blog won’t comment on the moral issue of branding to children, the environmental questions about Hummer or the overall merchandising strategy for General Motors.  We do feel that this particular move was brilliant for an entirely different reason.  The brand positioning for Hummer is straighforward and extremely effective when executed properly: Hummer is a toy for grown-ups.  The irony of this promotion is that the Hummer already looks like a toy and is already sold like a toy.  Putting a real toy version of the Hummer into happy meals will not only influence children - it will influence their parents.  It brilliantly reinforces the brand positioning.

What is Foolish:
After a great breakout spot for the H3 (the ‘One Little Monster’ spot -  which we review here), General Motors has been stumbling in its campaign to market the Hummer H3 by its insistence on trying to make the H3 friendly to women.  As Gina Chon writes today in the Wall Street Journal, General Motors is now taking this strategy one step further, with an ad campaign intended specifically to refute misconceptions about the H3’s size and gas mileage.  This strikes us as a radically bad idea for several reasons.

First, GM is using precious airtime to argue with consumers.  Hummer has a bad reputation with environmentalists for a good reason - they are SUVs which are fuel-inefficient.  While it is true that the H3 gets much better mileage than the much larger H2, highway gas mileage of 20mph is nothing to brag about for a vehicle which will holds no more than a Volvo station wagon.

The bigger problem is that the Hummer brand team is trying to make the H3 a different brand from the H2 and ignoring that the real brand in the mind of consumers is Hummer.  The reason to buy a Hummer (as some of the Hummer spots effectively show) is to compensate.  If your life is too unexciting, the Hummer is a toy that adds excitement.  If there’s too little testosterone in your vegan diet, the Hummer adds aggression.

This is a single-minded message that works extremely well for the brand.  But General Motors is making an elementary branding mistake by trying to please everyone.  ‘More people will like us if they know the truth and then more people will buy’ goes the corporate mantra.  In reality, those predisposed to hate Hummer will not listen to the ad.  Those who like Hummer or might respond to the real brand message will be confused by this campaign.

General Motors must remember that it is okay for some consumers to hate Hummer as long as others love it.  Hummer has the makings of a cult brand and will find greater sales volume by narrowing rather than broadening its message.

Branding Bottom Line:
Hummer takes one step forward and one step back.  Much like General Motors.

Here is our first take on the hits and misses of the game, by category:

CELEBRITY

Hit - Desperate Housewives (ABC) - Shaquille O’Neal, Hugh Hefner etc.
Instant Analysis - A nice job of using celebrity to show that absolutely everyone is watching Desperate Housewives. Turns celebrity on its head. ABC does a nice job of using its own time to build one of its own brands.

Hit - Debit MasterCard - MacGyver
Instant Analysis - We reviewed this spot before the game (click here to read review and watch video). It does a great job of bringing the God of Small Things - MacGyver - to the card for small things - Debit Mastercard. A good balance of big-game production value and solid marketing.

Miss - Pizza Hut Cheesy Bites - Jessica Simpson
Replace Carls and Paris Hilton with Pizza Hut and Jessica Simpson and you have this equally irrelevant spot which uses sex in a puzzling way. It not only fails to support the brand - it does not even make sense in context. Click Here to view.

HUMOR

Hit - Sprint Phones - Two spots do a nice job of showing the benefits of high speed phones with TV and downloads for Sprint. The first has the phone with the extra benefit of “Crime Deterrent.” The second is about the music and ends up with a Benny Hill romp around the room. What makes these work is that the humor connects to the product and the brand and the phone is very visible in both. Click Here to view.

Miss - AmeriQuest Mortgage - The ‘Don’t be too quick to judge’ spots are both very funny, but even professionals will have a hard time remembering the brand - which shows up only at the end of each spot. Click Here to view.

CAUSE MARKETING

Hit - Campaign for Real Beauty (Dove) - We have been critical of Dove using the Campaign to sell Dove Moisturizing lotion (click here) but for the Super Bowl Dove used its marketing dollars to promote the campaign instead. In the end, this will do more for Dove than the earlier spots. (Click Here to view)

Miss - The Beer Institute - The Beer Institute? Beer needs an industry group? It was nice to learn all of those foreign words for ‘cheers’ but with Budweiser spending nearly $20 million on the Super Bowl, nobody was going to forget Beer. (Click Here to view anyway.)

NEW PRODUCT INTRODUCTION

Hit - Hummer H3 (General Motors) - This is an older spot we have previously reviewed (click here) but one that worked well for the big game. Even though we would like more face time for the Hummer, this spot reinforces the ruggedness of the brand very well. (Click Here and turn of your pop-up blocker to view the spot).

Miss - Full Throttle (Coca-Cola) - This pre-game epic spot pulls out all the stops to convince you that you’ll be meaner and badder with Full Throttle Energy drink - including running a Red Bull car off the road. At the end we’re confused and Coke is a bit poorer.

Miss - Gillette Fusion (Procter & Gamble) - Not as bad as we had expected from the preview spot, but a flop nonetheless. Gillette does try to give us a plausible reason for adding two blades and draining our wallet further (more contact points equals less pressure equals less skin irritation) but it seems weak and irrelevant. We’re still more interested in real fusion - or maybe cold fusion. (Click Here to view - 2nd Quarter spot.)

OTHER NOTABLES

Hit - Budweiser Clydsdales (Anheuser-Busch) - Anheuser-Busch wasted a lot of money during the big game with spots that were all over, many of which were just forgettable beer commercials. This one, however, connected at an emotional level. Fortunately, the Clydsdales are so closely tied to Budweiser that there is no question which beer the spot is pushing. And the value of authenticity seems like it is Bud’s best brand proposition. (Click Here to view - 3rd Quarter)

Miss - Emerald Nuts - In the early 1990’s in Los Angeles, we learned that random success (like buying some beach property in L.A. in the 1970’s) makes people think they are geniuses. But sooner or later this random-ness fails. After spectacular luck last year with a quirky little spot, these random geniuses failed spectacularly. But perhaps the real nut fans will love it. (Click Here to view)

Today the ThirdWay Advertising Blog announces our Awards for Most Effective Advertising for 2005. These are, in our judgement, the most effective single ads or campaigns running during 2005 (regardless of when they were produced). In the selection process this year we noticed a few trends. Here are five trends in effective advertising for 2005:

1. Few Celebrities - Only two of our top 10 picks employed celebrity spokespeople. For one of these (USA Networks) the celebrities were an integral part of the brand offering that was being advertised.
2. Small Budgets - The Most Effective Advertising for 2005 was not the most expensive. Fully half of our picks feature people talking directly to a camera. None involved elaborate production numbers or expensive stunts. A few involved visual effects, but only those where the effect reinforced the brand.
3. Not So Funny - Only three of our picks used humor. While we believe humor can be effective, it can distract if it doesn’t link back to the brand. Nothing is worse from the brand manager’s standpoint than a funny ad that everyone remembers selling a brand that nobody remembers.
4. Not Just “Buzz-Worthy” - Several of our picks for 2005 generated lots of Buzz. But for these brands, the Buzz reinforced the brand positioning. Buzz without the right connection to the brand is just static on the screen to brand marketers.
5. Old Brands Return - Four of our picks are for brands that have used these campaigns to stage a comeback in 2005. For all of these brands, the advertising campaign was central to the resurgence of the brand.

Brand: Hummer (General Motors)
Execution: TV
Link: Click Here
Target: Guys who need a smallish SUV
Rating: ***
Reviewer: David
Description:
A Godzilla-esque monster wreaks a path of destruction across an unnamed city until it comes face to face across a building with a robotic monster of similar proportions. The two fall in love instantly, court to the song ‘Love is Strange’ and soon we see that Godzilla is a girl and pregnant. When Godzilla gives birth, it’s to a Hummer H3. As baby Hummer drives away we see the line “It’s a little monster,” followed by the announcement of the new H3.

What Works:
This spot works because Hummer has stuck to a simple brand positioning, trying very hard to own “Tough,” in the minds of mid-life crisis fathers who are yearning for an alternative to a minivan or conventional SUV.

This spot is a good example of using humor and storytelling techniques which reinforce the brand positioning rather than distract from it. (For a great example of a commercial where the story hurts the brand message, see Burger King’s new Coq Roq spots.)

Hummer is really trying to reinforce two important properties about Hummers here while introducing the new H3. In addition to “Tough,” this spot does a good job with “Unique.” And of course the product itself cooperates as Hummers are indeed tough and unique. Love them or hate them, everyone will agree on these two characteristics, which is a good test for the validity of the positioning.

Three things make this spot effective:

1. Engaging - This spot is engaging as a standard monster flick quickly turns into an odd love story. Because the story helps position the brand, the involvement that the story generates does not go to waste here.
2. Music - The music as much as the story creates the humor in this spot, allowing the brand to seem less pretentious.
3. Creativity pays off - The clever story pays dividends at the end of the spot when we see that the two monsters have given birth to an H3. This also makes the brand the hero.

All in all a nice job of building the brand with unconventional advertising.

What Doesn’t:
Hummer’s positioning is perilously close to Jeep’s which also trades on ‘tough’ but has more of a performance bent. General Motors is right to stress the uniquess of Hummer as the Hummer products are much more distinctive looking than the Jeeps. The quirkiness of the commercial also helps separate Hummer as it is not the sort of advertising that would fit the Jeep brand.

The big risk with this spot is that the brand remains hidden until the end of the commercial. This is necessary to maintain the dramatic tension in the spot, no question. However it leaves the spot open, at the end, to being memorable but losing the brand affiliation. This is something GM needs to watch carefully.

Branding Bottom Line:
Hummer does a nice job with the home video.

Brand: General Motors - all brands (includes Cadillac, Chevrolet, GM, Saab, Hummer)
Execution: TV
Link: Not Yet
Target: Middle Income Car Buyers
Reviewer: David
Rating: ****

Description:
A series of GM employees talk about General Motors products (visuals mainly of trucks) and emphasize “POWER”. At the end of the spot we hear that everyone in America will be offered the General Motors Employee Discount “You pay what we pay.”

What Works:
This has been the most successful promotion in the car industry for some time and may have single-handedly given General Motors and its embattled CEO Rick Wagoner some breathing room.

The focus of commentary on the promotion has been on price - and there’s no doubt that this was a price-based campaign. From the brand manager’s standpoint, however, we feel that there is more at work here than a simple price promotion, and we’d like to tell you why.

There is no question that General Motors is offering rock-bottom pricing, but it is the way they are doing it that’s important. The last time the industry went through a wave of price cutting it was done with 0% apr financing.

This price promotion is smarter because it fixes one of the largest problems in the industry - one that is well-understood, has been studied in controlled tests and one that GM itself was the first to address years ago. The problem is price discrimination.

When asked, most people will say that if you are a woman or black and walk into a car dealership, you will have difficulty getting the same price as a white man. In fact, this was shown quantitatively in a study by Ian Ayres called Pervasive Prejudice? Unconventional Evidence of Race and Gender Discrimination (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2001).

The power of the “Employee Discount for Everyone” is not in the word ‘discount’ - it’s in the last word ‘Everyone.’ In fact, the spot announcing this discount is weighted towards non-white male speakers. Of the 7 spokespeople in the spot (all employees), only two are white men. There are two more men - one Hispanic and one Black and three women, one white, one Asian and one Black. While this is not unusual in advertising in general, it serve a very specific purpose here - to underline the world ‘Everyone.’

This is the Saturn strategy, of course - or the Wal-Mart strategy. Give everyone the same low price and ‘fairness’ becomes part of the value proposition. This is a smart move by General Motors and it brings more than the power of the low price to the table. The line ‘you pay what we pay’ gives us the permission to believe by holding GM to an absolute standard that consumers know must represent a real value. This is far better than announcing a 20% sticker price rollback.

What Doesn’t:
We often comment that a spot is only effective if it is listened to. There is not a lot of visual drama in this spot and General Motors waits until the last 10 seconds to announce the Employee Discount. So the effectiveness of the spot depends on people listening when the news in announced. On the other hand, the media did a great job of promoting this for General Motors, so the actual spot was probably the least important part of this well-orchestrated campaign.

Branding Bottom Line:
With the Employee Discount for Everyone, General Motors strikes a blow for equality and builds the brand while lowering price.