Struggling mightily to keep its brand alive much less relevant, Chrysler Corporation, the runt of the “Big Three” litter, delivered a resounding and impassioned 120-second narrative about the city it calls home. The commercial’s drive-by cinematography pulled us down streets we’d rather not travel, while a mix of foreboding sound design and full-on choir ebbed toward the familiar chopping guitar chords of Eminem’s anthemic “Lose Yourself”. In the final scene the hoodie-clad hip-hopper himself appeared, rolling up to the historic Fox Theater in a black Chrysler 200.
Clearly, this is not your mother’s Sebring. And in an industry where survival means thinking outside the crumple zone, this isn’t even Detroit doing the talking. One line from the bravado-soaked script foretold this new mindset with all the resonance of a new-car smell: “When it comes to luxury, it’s as much about where it’s from as who it’s for.” Interesting.
First, the “where it’s from” part. Chrysler has just emerged from a sad chapter in its own history—chapter 11, to be exact—and now finds itself under the control of Fiat. The Italian automaker currently owns a 25% share, with the opportunity to notch it up to majority status before year’s end. In fact, the buzz this past week is that Fiat SpA and Chrysler Group LLC may be combining operations under CEO Sergio Marchionne.
Not an earth-shattering development to be sure, particularly from the folks who not too long ago called Daimler “boss”. Yet it seems to fly in the face of their new messaging.
Then there’s the origin of the ad itself. For decades upon decades Chrysler used a stable of local shops for its advertising, from homegrown Ross Roy to the onetime Detroit offices of Interpublic’s Campbell-Mithun Esty, Omnicom’s BBDO and Bozell (formerly a True North behemoth).
BBDO handled things until last year. Since then, however, the account has bounced around like a Pittsburgh Steeler fumble deep in Packer territory. Minneapolis-based Fallon Worldwide, a subsidiary of French holding company Publicis Groupe S.A., took the reins for a few months until they were handed the Cadillac account. The Chrysler brand work then landed in the capable arms of Portland creative giant Wieden+Kennedy, while the dealer and retail (a.k.a. “tier-two”) business found its way back to the D via Southfield, Mich.-based Doner.
Hopes abounded among Doner management that the brand work would soon follow. But those dreams vanished this past week like a Ben Roethlesberger pass into Green Bay’s cover-two zone. If not from the Super Bowl spot alone—which generated four million hits to the Chrysler corporate web site, literally overnight—then from the announcement days ago that W+K had been named 2010 Agency Of The Year by Advertising Age, on the strength of its successful “The Things We Make, Make Us” campaign for Chrysler’s Jeep brand.
A Detroit story, told by an Italian-controlled carmaker through their Portland ad agency. Now that’s rolling the fuzzy dice.
Now on to the “who it’s for” part of the line. Ask any current or former Detroiter about the commercial and they’ll tell you how proud it made them feel. Some will actually well up as they speak. This isn’t just car shill to them. Chrysler served up a spot about who, what and where the brand is, and the city heard loud and clear.
Although the ad turned heads nationally, it didn’t come close to its local impact. USA Today’s annual viewer rankings of Super Bowl commercials put it at #43, behind eleven other automotive spots (four from Chevrolet and two from VW as well as Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Hyundai, BMW and Kia). So why does Chrysler still consider it a rousing success and $9 million well spent? Could it be that Detroit wasn’t just the subject of the commercial, but the target as well?
There’s more than enough evidence to support the theory. History has shown that in times of financial crisis, Chrysler turns to employee-based incentives to rejuvenate sagging sales. They did so in the aftermath of their previous government bailout in 1979 and again through the Daimler dip of the 1990s. They picked up their numbers twice over the past decade with sales and leasing offers aimed at their employees.
How big is this piece of the Chrysler pie? Big enough to help the automaker gain market share in 2008 despite a 44% drop in sales. A large portion of Chrysler’s tier-two advertising is devoted to employee plan participants, persuading them through enticing and exclusive promotions to own or lease a car bearing the name of their employer. These ads blanket the Detroit market, where the lion’s share of corporate employees reside. The company has a pattern of internalizing during tough times. And this time it seems they didn’t merely reach out to their own ranks—they gave them a big fat Motor City hug.
So maybe this ad wasn’t supposed to tell the nation about Detroit after all. Maybe it was only intended to tell Detroiters what they wanted to hear. But if it turns around the fortunes of a Detroit automaker and helps keep more Detroiters working, does it really matter?
[this article also appears in the Brand Liberators Blog at www.gsw-w.com/blog.]
