When we first published the Chevy Sonic street art project — the one that places robotics inside the car to create graffiti-like murals — was such a huge undertaking… but it was. And this video shows just how much planning, programming, configuration, and installation went into making the first video the extraordinary success it was:
Now, who’s glad they covered up the Sonic during that messy painting process so as not to get paint on the car? This guy!
PS: this is one type of marketing method to attract a new crowd to Chevy… and perhaps to cars in general… don’t you think?
Comments
This is what GM spends money on?
What’s wrong with that?
Good marketing… And far less expensive than buying air time on TV. They’ll run this on the web (YouTube, Hulu, etc.) and capture the hearts and minds of the younger market. Good stuff if you ask me!
Possibly, but how many people will actually see this? How can you target a specific audience? On tv you can throw a spot in because you know who watches what. I guarantee I would have never seen this if it was not for your website.
When it comes to these ads (segments?), I don’t think it’s a game of (high) numbers, but rather one of matching the target audience for the video with the target audience for the car: teens, young urbanites, those who haven’t yet bought their first car, etc. In other words, the effectiveness of the video is greater when you have the right people watching it (the market it was made for and made to attract).
For instance, the conversion to an action of a regular TV commercial is somewhere around 0.5% (half of a percent). The path to sale flow looks something like this:
1. Ad runs on TV
2. Half of a percent of those who see the ad take action — visit a website, check out a product in a store, or do whatever is required by the advertiser).
3. A certain percentage of those who see the ad + take action buy the product
In this case, the conversion from #1 to #2 isn’t half of a percent, but something much higher (10-20 percent) — because it speaks better to them. It’s a niche ad that doesn’t cost much to run but ends up converting people much better to take whatever action desired by the advertiser. So it’s not mass-scale by any means… but it will be more effective at converting; and that’s not to mention the ancillary benefits of such a video — like mindshare, brand awareness/consideration, etc. that rise as the right people see the video.
I really like this kind of marketing/mindshare. I think it sells without selling and most of the time they give me/us something to think about and consider. There is no way they could turn the original video into a 30 second tv spot and I don’t think they should try. Somethings need to be kept whole and this is an example of one of those things.
And as far as getting it out there, I sent the YouTube link to every one of my car lovin’ friends and most of them watched it. And if they send it to their friends, then I think that is about as targeted an audience as you can get!! =)