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New Client…wants it all
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I’m curious, while we are on the subject of car dealers.
Most local car ads are either the Crazy Eddie screaming monster truck style, or manufacturer beauty shots with a donut, or a combination, usually involving the cute children of the dealership owner.I do not see too many original beauty shot local car ads – aside from the higher cost of production, do car manufacturers have anything to say about how their products are portrayed in advertising that they do not endorse?
For example, if a local Lexus spot has some sweeping shots of the car, the trim, the dash, the tires, the cupholders, etc – these are images of the car – so the spot is selling the Lexus L923x as opposed to promoting the dealership.
Similarly, a local supermarket may run a spot promoting Milano cookies, 2/$4. But what if they have sweeping beauty shots of the Milano cookie, a closeup of the chocolate filling, a shot of someone luxuriously biting into a cookie – then the spot is selling Milano cookies.
In other words, local spots are being made at the dealer’s expense to sell a product they do not make, but a product they sell. Is there a difference from a business/IP point of view?
See what I’m asking?
Mike
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Having done a lot of the really bad local car commercials, generally our point of view is that Ford sells the car; we sell the dealership that sells the car. In most cases, the running footage is more a convenience to use. Generally the dealerships don’t know what the manufacturers are going to feature until the last minute (like financing offers or rebates) and they want to beat their competitors to the punch and get on air first. In most markets, the local dealers also have an advertising group that they all chip in to for air time of their product commercials produced by the manufacturer (like an F-150 commercial telling you to go to you the Ford Dealership near you)
There are a few dealerships that we have shot “local” running footage for but for the most part they don’t want to do it because of the cost (and at times the look/quality). They do get co-op from the manufacturers on the air time but generally the production comes out of their own pockets.
I hope that makes sense and I didn’t add to the confusion.
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Whether you are promoting dealers vs. brands can be a little sticky… and it just depends on where you are and what the competition is…
We do some dealerships (Honda, Buick, Chevy, Chrysler, Jeep) where the stores have major competition from other dealers in the area, so those spots focus heavily on the particular dealership and why customers should by from them.
Conversely, we also have some dealerships (BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche) where they are the only game in town. In our area a potential Porsche buyer has to buy from our client or go out of town… to the next dealership 150 miles away. In that case we are a little more heavily advertising the cars and incidentally advertising the dealership.
Just a couple of other observations about car spots…
Running footage reels from the manufacturers can often be used, but the quality varys greatly. And weirdly enough, it seems that the more expensive the car, the worse the reel (and vice versa). Reels for, say, Buick or Honda… they are georgous. You’d swear Steven Spielberg directed them and Haskell Wexler shot them. But BMW or Jaguar?…hand my mother a camcorder and you’ll get better footage. And often sometimes you have to shoot your own footage. The reels are so expensive to produce that manufacturers don’t always do a new one every year… sometimes even less often than that. So often times we will need a particular new vehicle or model for which manufacturer footage simply does’t exist yet. In those cases we have to shoot our own. Fortuantely in our area we have found a couple of locations (the typical winding mountiain roads, bridges, etc.) that enable us to shoot running footage that mixes fairly seamlessly with the stuff from the manufacturers.
The other problem that you can quickly run into especially if you work for a lot of different dealers like we do is scheduling. They ALL want to advertise, and they ALL want to advertise at the same time…with new campaigns typically starting right at the middle of the month when the manufacturers release the “deal details” for the month ($5000 rebate, or 1% financing, or whatever). The problem is, that they never release these details in advance…because Chrysler doesn’t want to tip their hand to Ford who wants to keep details secret from Toyota and on and on, so you never know what you are going to need to do very far in advance and it comes right down to the last minute. We’ve probably done as many as a couple of dozen car spots in a month (maybe more, actually I think 31 was the most we ever did)… now that normally wouldn’t be a scheduling problem, but when they all have to be produced during the same week because none of the dealers can give you any advance info it can be tough to get them cranked out because there is a limited amount of pre-production that you can do to get a jump on it.
As I said, car spots rarely make the reel… but they definitely keep the doors open.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Let’s not forget that advertising agencies actually spend a lot of time researching which types of spots bring the most revenue in for their customers.
While all of us on the production side would like to go for the highest production quality (or at least the highest production value), it seems that the research traditionally has shown that it’s more important to customers who are searching for a new car to feel like they are getting “the latest and hottest ‘tips’ on where to find the best deal”.
I’ve worked very high-end campaigns, shot in HD and film with high production values and where the dealer buys out an entire stop set (instead of a typical 30 second slot). In each of those cases, there wasn’t enough measurable return on investment to continue with that approach. Maybe if it happened as a once a year special sponsorship, but not regularly.
I’m all for making great looking and great sounding spots – let’s face it, we devote huge amounts of time to hone our skills so we can improve the quality of our work. For better or worse, there is a balance between speed and quality and the balance between speed-to-air and quality is commonly determined by market research and feedback.
Occasionally pride will triumph over riches, but in the end, the dollars that come back to the dealer are the ultimate measure of a campaign’s success.
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Thanks everyone for all the info you have provided. It’s nice to see other helping and giving advice unlike where I live to ask someone for advice means to let them know of a new business opportunity. All appreciate everyone’s ideas and tips and advice. I feel more prepared but I will continue to look into this this even more so I can go in with the owner and tell him what we can offer.
Thanks again!
Chuck
Obernesser Productions
http://www.obernesserproductions.com -
I thank my lucky stars that I have NEVER had to do a cheap car dealer ad in my entire career. Now cheap, bad political ads? That’s another story for another thread!!
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I once made two local (town first selectman) ads. We did one free ad for both candidates. One guy had a script, and was shot sitting on a bench near a bucolic local pond. The other guy had no particular script, so we shot him at his house with his grandkids, and in front of a local high school. The 2nd guy won and stayed in office for 10 years.
Interesting thread indeed.
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I’ve never produced a cheap car dealer ad myself, but would be interested in the creative challenge of making one that was elegant and smart and inexpensive yet brought in the sales.
My wife’s a graphic artist and designer, and when we see bad signage or commercial art, I point to it and say: “They need you, hon”. She likewise does the same when we’re watching TV at home and bad local spots come on.
Sadly, I don’t think any cheap local car dealer is going to bankroll me on an untested and experimental spec spot for him, when he’s obviously getting a decent enough response doing what he’s always done, or he’d have tried other things…
But I have done a ton of low-budget PSA’s involving transportation issues over the years, functionally similar to car spots, and many of those looked very good and worked using very little money, because they had a simple but well-thought-out message leveraged off powerful visuals and good cutting.
But back to the car dealerships for a minute.
When I had to shop for a used car, the very last thing I paid attention to were TV and radio ads. I glanced thru print ads in the paper and free weeklies and “shopper” papers, did a lot of internet research on the repair histories and user comments, and read some consumer reports and similar things, narrowed down to exactly two makes/models. Went out and rented the one of those two cars I had never driven before, drove it for a day trip. The wife and I compared notes between our two candidates, picked the one make and model we wanted and the year we wanted (used), then checked all the print sources and internet sources for that exact car near us. Test drove three candidate cars that matched our specs over two weekends at three dealerships. Picked THE car, sat down with all our research and cost estimates and haggled to a respectable deal. Done. Process took about two months from the time we decided it was necessary to buy a replacement vehicle.
In all that time we NEVER looked at anybody’s TV ads and ignored all the screaming radio ads. Maybe we are not typical car buyers? When I watch the TV ads, they seem to really try and get a viewer to pull the trigger for a snap decision, stressing panic and deadlines to act. But only an idiot would decide that trivially on a purchase costing thousands, right?
Maybe I’m answering my own questions?
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“When I had to shop for a used car, the very last thing I paid attention to were TV and radio ads. I glanced thru print ads in the paper and free weeklies and “shopper” papers, did a lot of internet research on the repair histories and user comments, and read some consumer reports and similar things, narrowed down to exactly two makes/models. Went out and rented the one of those two cars I had never driven before, drove it for a day trip. The wife and I compared notes between our two candidates, picked the one make and model we wanted and the year we wanted (used), then checked all the print sources and internet sources for that exact car near us. Test drove three candidate cars that matched our specs over two weekends at three dealerships. Picked THE car, sat down with all our research and cost estimates and haggled to a respectable deal. Done. Process took about two months from the time we decided it was necessary to buy a replacement vehicle.”
C’mon…wandering into the dealership to “just look”, and going home an hour later with a new car is one of life’s most joyous and disorienting experiences.
Some people just don’t know how to have fun.
J Cummings
DP/Chicago
http://www.cameralogic.tv -
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