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.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 29th, 2005 at 7:36 pm and is filed under General Motors, Hummer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.