Chevrolet drives new media to marketing success

Faced with new challenges, the automaker is taking a new approach to marketing, and Kim Kosak, the brand’s general director of advertising and sales promotion, couldn’t be happier — or busier.

Viewers of the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square could be forgiven if they thought they had mistakenly tuned in to see a party for Chevrolet instead.

The automaker’s presence was everywhere: from the yellow-and-green Chevrolet hats on the party-goers to the advertisements featured on the billboards to the two new Tahoe SUVs lifted high above the crowd and the free concert provided on the square featuring Mary J. Blige — delivered to the stage in a new Chevy Tahoe, of course.

The automaker’s domination of the event continued a three-year cycle that began in 2003 when Chevrolet used the event as a platform to launch its new American Revolution advertising campaign.

Now the company is firmly entrenched as the key sponsor of the annual Times Square gathering — seen by more than a billion viewers worldwide — a situation made more amazing when you consider that prior to Chevrolet’s move three years ago, no advertiser had thought to “own” the event.

“There was no New Year’s Eve property — we created a New Year’s Eve property,” says Kim Kosak, general director of advertising and sales promotion for Chevrolet.

It’s just one of several innovative programs the automaker — which spends more than $1 billion annually on advertising — is using to reach consumers in an ever-more-complicated media world.

“The medium is the message,” says Kosak. Or, to put it another way, today’s marketing is about pairing the right message with the right medium to reach your target.

To do that, Chevy has shifted its focus slightly from the 30-second television spot to look for other media opportunities and is finding a receptive audience, Kosak adds.

“We can create our own venue now,” she says. “The media world is more open to new concepts. We can approach them with ideas and get their assistance in creating new programs or opportunities.”

Recent examples include imbedding the logo for the Chevrolet Impala within the CBS logo on the network’s programs during the launch of the redesigned vehicle, and the takeover of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to publicize the retro-inspired HHR. The vehicle was featured on the program and in advertising spots surrounding the show, including a lengthy video clip of comedian Andy Dick awarding a new HHR to a customer who won a contest tied into the launch of the vehicle.

FINDING NEW WAYS TO DELIVER MARKETING MESSAGES

Creating new media properties is one way for Chevrolet to stay in step with the fickle attention spans of consumers. But it’s also a way for the automaker to play a role in addressing the well-publicized issues at its parent company, General Motors Corp.

Against that backdrop, Chevrolet is altering its media mix, seeking new opportunities across the board to deliver its marketing messages in a new way.

Kosak says Chevrolet will significantly increase the money it spends on digital marketing this year. And she’s looking to boost the money spent on direct marketing — which she says the company has been underutilizing.

If keeping track of all these new opportunities makes her work life that much more complicated, that’s fine with her.

“It’s a lot more complicated, but it’s a lot more interesting too,” she says with a smile. “I love the challenge.”

Part of coping with the challenges of reaching people across a wider variety of mediums and in different ways is knowing more about your target audience. To that end, GM has invested a significant amount of resources to capture data that can help deepen its divisions’ knowledge. That’s great for marketers, but Kosak notes that having more information can sometimes lead to other issues when trying to make decisions.

“The challenge is getting it into the system and not overcomplicating it,” she says. “A lot of it is really just common sense. You can’t just rely on it as a crutch.”

Trust your gut, and have a great concept, she says, and you’ll be fine.

“You have to start with an idea,” Kosak adds, then match it to the appropriate medium.

That might seem simple when you have a massive budget to spend, but that only increases the pressure.

“You’re looking at every penny,” she says. “You’ve got to be smart. You can’t just let money solve it.”