It’s no secret Cadillac is in the middle of a complete renaissance that’s comprised of overhauling product, branding and dealership experience. The latest tactic to move Cadillac in a new direction by the division’s CMO Uwe Ellinghaus and President Johan de Nysschen will debut this Sunday, February 22nd during The Oscars on ABC.
The Dare Greatly campaign is already attracting attention, with Cadillac positioning billboards featuring excerpts from President Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man In The Areana” speech across major U.S. cities, originally without an author. This past Sunday, the billboards were changed to read “#DareGreatly … Cadillac.”
The “Dare Greatly” campaign is big moment for Cadillac, and the brand is expecting a lot of feedback, both positive and negative, following its debut this coming Sunday.
“This is a reinvention, not just a repositioning. And it’s a product renaissance as well. So we have the right to say we are ‘daring greatly’ ourselves. This is not just a ‘campaign.’ We want people to say, ‘Look how much Cadillac has changed.’ And we will get some criticism,” said Ellinghaus to Forbes.
The brand campaign is already being compared to what Chrysler accomplished with its “Born By Fire” ad during the Super Bowl four years ago. Chrysler accomplished an immense amount of brand cachet with the spot, which featured hip-hop artist Eminem and introduced its “Imported From Detroit” tagline. The brand hasn’t looked back since.
Just what does Cadillac hope to accomplish with Dare Greatly? Many things, as Ellinghaus explains.
Cadillac wants to “outwit luxury, to dare greatly and create interplay among the brand values of boldness, sophistication and optimism, and yet be inviting and approachable. We want to inspire. We want people to dream Cadillac again instead of demonstrating one-upsmanship such as ‘more horsepower,’ ‘more torque,’ etc.”
Those are fighting words that sound like Cadillac has a real vision behind where it want to position itself among the arena of German and Japanese luxury competitors. And if you ask us, it’s about time.
All eyes will be on Cadillac this Sunday (well maybe not all eyes, but our eyes for sure) when the first of its coming spots makes its debut.
Comments
I just want to say that I loved your new advertisement ” Cadillac Dare Greatly”. What am was wondering was the song by Edith Pilif or Mirelle Matheu I love them both and it works very well with your ad. I know your very busy but I would really appreciate it if you would let me know. Thank you and just so you know my Dad drove a Cadillac most of my life. Thank you D.Morie