May/12

Who’s the advertiser? Mosaic Monday

No comments · Posted by Catherine Maino in Branding, Communication, creative, Mosaic Monday, TV

One of our wonderful production partners, Andy at Appeal Productions emailed a car commercial to me and his two partners. You’ll notice while watching, no brand name is mentioned. So here was Andy’s question; ”Is this a smart play on the East & West Coasts where people tend to drive Toyotas or Hondas? Can they re-capture market share? Will consumers be upset if they feel like Ford misled them? What does this say for branding? What does it say for re-building an iconic brand?”

Jon @ Appeal: “It appears that you know that they are Ford cars…and you are talking about it. I’d say that their marketing for this has worked.”

Andy @ Appeal: “It was from a Forbes report. Hence the only reason I knew it was a Ford product was because I read about it.
Let me rephrase, what do you think the general public’s perception of this campaign will be? ”

Jon @ Appeal: “Forbes is talking about it…and everyone who is somewhat interested can find out it’s a Ford campaign. It seems to be a lot less self-damaging than the Domino’s “we know our pizza sucks” campaign. I’d say any campaign where it gets the name out (even by not advertising the name)…the campaign is working.”

Beau @ Appeal: “Any ad that leaves the viewer curious is effective IMO.”

Me (Catherine): “I’ve seen this! Intriguing and somewhat exciting.
In the outdoor industry we often utilized “teaser” campaigns. They worked very well! Is this what Ford is doing here? As a marketing person, I find it a bit frustrating to see a great production but not know the brand. But as an average consumer? If it drives people to search on the website they are promoting…it becomes track-able. The demo is obviously a bit on the younger side. (energy savings, cost efficient) Not to mention stats (Search Engine Land article) are showing a large % of individuals utilizing search engine while watching TV. (see article below) In that….what genius!”

Andy @ Appeal:“Im not sure if the ‘bait and switch’ method is a good marketing plan. If I feel like I am getting played by the advertiser, it would probably make me avoid them more.”

What do you think? Is this a genius way of getting the consumer intrigued or a “bait and switch”? Tell us!