Saturn: We're Still Here

As General Motors fights for its own survival, its subsidiaries — Saturn and Saab — were the first to feel the effects of the automaker’s empty coffers. Saab has already declared bankruptcy, cut 750 jobs and reduced production. There are reportedly a number of “interested parties” who might save the brand from absolute closure.

As for Saturn, GM fully intends to jettison the brand by 2012, with or without a buyer. With Saturn’s possible death out in the open, sales have fallen precipitously, down more than 50% since the beginning of 2009 compared to the same time frame in 2008.

According to The New York Times, in order to keep its few remaining customers, Saturn will roll out a new ad campaign this spring. One of them is featured above and one below. The campaign reminds viewers that despite all the depressing news surrounding Saturn, the brand is still here with all its cars and most of its dealerships intact.

Audi Q5 Commercials Win Over Oscars

There I was, trying to make it through the Oscars, and low and behold a clever Audi commercial won me over. It was for the new Q5 SUV, which just went on sale. In the commercial, a bunch of kids run out of a schoolhouse to go home and all the cars waiting for them are beige Lexus RX SUVs. Then, up pulls a black Q5. A happy boy jumps in and drives home with his father. The tagline about identity theft is kind of lame, but the concept is great. You can check out the commercial above, and there’s another one featuring a woman who can’t find her SUV in a parking lot below.

The build-a-Q5 feature also just went live on Audi’s consumer webpage. It looks like the Premium Plus trim level is the sweet spot, at $41,500 with cool LED headlights, a standard Panoramic roof and heated seats. The Q5 went on sale last week.

More Audi Q5 News

Hyundai Genesis Coupe in Super Bowl XLIII Ad Lineup

It seems Hyundai is going to follow up its 2008 Super Ads for the Genesis sedan with spots for the upcoming Genesis coupe. While the sedan ads were a tad sedate, ranking low on most people’s ad meters, the company says the coupe ads will feature precision driving by famed racer Rhys Millen, teamed with music. In the first commercial, the music will be supplied by classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma, while a secret guest artist will be featured in the second ad.

The title of both commercials is “The Epic Lap.” Shot at Road Atlanta, the racetrack didn’t do much damage to the car. The company says the Genesis only needed a new set of tires after three days of filming. 

More Hyundai Genesis News

Saturn Goes Social

It seems the world is abuzz with social media these days. Or should that be atwitter? Either way, major companies are taking note, including GM’s Saturn brand. Once known for its customer get-togethers in the hills of Tennessee, the company is moving into today’s Web 2.0 world with imsaturn.com.

The social website allows people to sign in and join the community by creating their own pages, similar to Facebook or MySpace. As I’m writing this post, there are 215 members on the site, which launched sometime last week.

We’re not sure if the world needs more social websites, but Saturn seems to be a logical car brand to do it. What do you think?

Dodge's Largest Web Campaign Launches New Journey

Dodge is allocating nearly a third of its advertising dollars for the new Dodge Journey compact SUV to the interwebs. Starting today, web surfers will be bombarded with advertisements spouting the new tagline “If you can dream it, do it.” Sounds like someone is mixing MLK and Michael Jordan metaphors, but we’ve heard much worse.

The idea is that the Journey is so functional it can do just about anything. We’re not sure how much different the Journey is compared to others in its segment, but perhaps homepage takeovers of AOL (today), Yahoo! (Friday) and MSN (Saturday) will tell us.

The rest of the advertising pie is heading to traditional media, like TV and print, along with hands-on efforts across the country, including three NASCAR races. The Journey went on sale quietly last month and sold nearly as well as the full-size Durango. And that was before a major ad blitz.

More Dodge Journey News (KickingTires)

BMW Heads to Facebook for 1 Series

Hey twentysomethings, there’s a new BMW in town: It’s the 1 Series and it starts for under $30,000 so it’s a BMW you might actually be able to afford.

That’s not actually the advertising copy from BMW but the company is using roughly half of its ad budget to push the 1 Series — estimated from $15 million to $25 million — on online media, including Facebook. On the social media site, users will get to build their own 1 series and send it to friends. The company hopes to woo new shoppers to the brand who may have never considered it before.

BMW will also advertise on Yahoo! and MSN, but the Facebook move gets our attention most. The company will have virtual road trips from one Facebook page to another. We’re not sure how that will work but the gist is to get the shopper — and his or her friends — involved and not to cram the message down their throats.

What do you think? Would an interactive ad motivate you towards a car or do you just want to see something traditional?

BMW Turns to the Web for Its 1-Series (New York Times)

Ford Not Targeting Families With Flex Ads

Ford’s answer to the minivan will not be directly marketed to families, according to a story by Automotive News. The company’s new head of marketing, Jim Farley — previously of the trendiest of trend-setting brands, Scion — has revamped the marketing plan of this very important new model to focus on trendsetters instead of just the family market.

As an early example of this plan, Ford had a famous street artist decorate the white roof of the Flex in various urban themes at the recent New York auto show. Ford wants to get far away from the minivan stigma with the Flex, especially since it’s discontinued its own failed minivan, the Freestar.

It seems to me Ford should play up the minivan stigma to the hilt with the Flex.

Hybrid Owner Mindset

An online ad network called Mindset Media has come up with a profile that pigeonholes hybrid car owners. The company used Nielsen Online to find warm bodies for the study, which determined that hybrid owners are highly creative, sensitive, liberal, able to lead others and intellectually curious.

The company'€™s purpose in conducting the study was to ensure automakers going into the hybrid market know it has the pulse of the hybrid buyer locked down, just in case there'€™s any ad-agency shopping going on.

We wish the company the best with that, but our own anecdotal evidence suggests that almost everyone we talk to these days looking for a new car at least asks what we think of hybrids. We'€™d guess a few them are unimaginative, callous, conservative followers, but that'€™s just us.

Hybrid Car Owner + Mac User = Contender for Global Dominance (AdRants)

Sexy Toyota Sienna Ad a Must-See

There are a lot of ways to advertise incentives, but Toyota ups the ante with its new spot for the 2008 Sienna minivan here. The black-and-white ad satirizes a Calvin Klein Obsession commercial, but with the family-hauler as the object of desire. The actors seductively whisper “Five-star safety rating,” and the finishing line — “Somewhere between luxury and soccer practice lies Sienna” — is plain hilarious. The ad then shows the current local incentives for wherever it’s airing, which here in Chicago is $1,500 cash back. 

This ad follows two great commercials for the new Toyota Sequoia SUV and mildly funny spots for the new Corolla. The Sienna spot tops them all, though, and really stands out. It’s ironic that a company stereotyped as producing boring cars can come up with such innovative spots. Let us know what you think of the ad in the comments below.

Hummer Owners Don't Like Stigma

SUV buyers avoid getting Hummers more than any other brand because of the image attached to owning one, or so says a survey by J.D. Power. That’s leading GM to change the marketing for the brand to highlight the utility of the H2 and H3.

The new campaign calls Hummers “Purpose Built” to show that people buy them to handle tasks other vehicles simply couldn’t accomplish. Hummers aren’t status symbols, you see, they’re to go white-water rafting after crossing the Rubicon. While it may be a good slogan on its own, we doubt that this attempt to change the image of Hummer will actually stick.

Hummer owners themselves are tired of getting nasty looks, and often find their SUVs vandalized, according to a story in USA Today. New ad campaign aside, we doubt mainstream buyers will stop looking down on Hummers as long as the SUVs continue to get the same — or worse — gas mileage as other SUVs. At least that’s our guess. What’s yours?

Hummer's Feeling a Little Misunderstood (USA Today)