It looks like Cadillac has finally struck a sweet spot with its “Dare Greatly” motif. After years of growing pains, Cadillac debuted three new spots last week ahead of the 2018 Oscars—and dealers approve.
Automotive News reported on Sunday that Cadillac National Dealer Council applauded the brand’s shift in tone. Will Churchill, chairman of the body, said the dealers literally applauded for the first time in years when the brand showed the spots last month.
The brand reportedly told dealers it promised to keep a similar message in the future.
“What the council liked was the fact that Cadillac went out and procured really good music that put some more emotion in it,” Churchill said. “It wasn’t just cars in New York … We were super jazzed about it. They are socially relevant.”
The three spots are certainly the spunkiest Cadillac ads we’ve seen in years. One solely featured the 2019 Cadillac XT4 without a voiceover, just Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” track. Another only focused on Super Cruise, and an all-encompassing ad touched on every facet of Cadillac, from luxury, to fun-to-drive cars and technological innovations of Book by Cadillac.
“I wanted to tap more into the kind of human nature and fun and enthusiasm,” Cadillac Director of Marketing Renee Rauchut said. “That was important for us to get across. We are not just a luxury brand, we’re fun to drive.”
Many of the former ads came under the direction of former Cadillac CMO Uwe Ellinghaus. Ellinghaus resigned last year amid health problems.
Comments
Pretty subtle ref to Book by Cadillac (I didn’t know if she was remote starting, or booking the only car on the street).
But no big – saw them on the Oscars; they cut through nicely.
Fun, upbeat, no navel-gazing.
Now I hope they continue to air them/post online, etc..
I don’t know how you guys feel but I have a strong feeling that Renee Rauchut will be a successor of Uwe Ellinghaus for Cadillac CMO. I sure hope she gets the position.
I think Renee is effectively in the CMO position now, and by all means Cadillac should officially give her that title. She’s already shown that she has so much better a vision than Uwe had. Too bad it took a health problem to remove Uwe.
I don’t want to kick the guy when he’s down, Uwe obviously must have had some talent in some capacity at BMW, but he was clearly the wrong person for the USA Cadillac job. And I fault Johan de Nysschen for not replacing Uwe while he was still healthy. Then again I don’t think JdN understands the US market either, at least not for the Cadillac brand.
I wish Uwe well with his health situation, but I don’t see a place for him again at Cadillac. Congrats to Renee Rauchut on a great start.