Cadillac’s ‘Dare Greatly’ ad campaign was launched with the intention of reshaping the image consumers have of the brand and to create more awareness. The man in charge of it all, Uwe Ellinghaus, thinks marketing towards a particular demographic is just ‘mental masturbation’, as he told The Motley Fool, and says Dare Greatly is instead focused on giving Cadillac a “point of view.”
Ellinghaus said marketing to a certain demographic is “the marketing of the 1980s and 1990s,” and is not the proper way to advertise a luxury car. Instead, you have to keep an “owned point of view,” for your brand talk about what you have to offer, not try to appeal to a certain group.
Cadillac point of view for Dare Greatly is fairly straightforward. The brand has uprooted itself from Detroit and planted a new headquarters in New York City, invested $12 billion on new products, and launched an expensive new ad campaign. They are risking it all in order to be serious players in their respective industry, like those individuals featured in the ‘Dare Greatly’ commercials, and are attempting to appeal to those with entrepreneurial spirit along the way.
“So this entrepreneurial spirit — we are the brand for people who are individualists,” Ellinghaus told The Motely Fool. “Who believe in themselves. Who violate the norm because the norm in luxury is German, let’s face it, and who have the guts to simply go for something else. These are the people that I have in mind for Cadillac, and I am convinced this is as appealing as it is for older people with an entrepreneurial spirit, who are still very alive, as it is for the younger generation.”
This of course only scrapes the surface of what the ‘Dare Greatly’ campaign is attempting to accomplish. For the rest of Uwe’s interview, check out the video below, or read the transcript over on The Motley Fool.
You may also like
Trending Now
2026 Chevy Bolt EV: Five Things We Would Change From The Previous Gen
2026 Chevy Silverado EV Pricing Uncovered
GMC’s 2025 Sierra 2500 HD: Everything That’s New And Different vs. 2024
2026 Chevy Silverado EV To Discontinue RST Trim Level
GM Supplier Dispute Could Halt Full-Size Truck Production This Week
Comments
What the Hell is he talking about, I seen Five yes 5 Mercedes Commercials watching one TV program and watching a few more programs it got even worse, but you know how many Caddy Commercials I seen, Zero as in (0), for the Week (0), so what Marketing is he referring to??? It’s like he Running His Mouth, Getting Paid and Showing Nothing for it, Hire me an I can do a Way Better Job then this Dude is even attempting to to do……If I sound Irate cause I am Dam It, Caddy makes the most Well Engineered and Luxury appointed cars with the CTS winning COY, but Nobody except for the Automobile Magazines and us who follow this site knows about because of his BS posturing about Ghost Marketing he’s displaying, that is the Main thing that get’s Asses in the Seats to see what you got!!!! No there will be some people that will say “Well Escalde don’t do Commercials”, I say well DUH, Escalade Don’t Need Commercials because it stand on it’s Own and if you don’t get that then you Really need to be Re-Educated Big Time, my whole point is Stop the Jabbering about Marketing and Get To Marketing or get some else in there who will, I long for the day when Caddy will have 5 Commercials in one TV Program Touting it’s Accomplishments and Show that it was the 1st to do something irrelevant……..
In my Tirade I forgot to say I do agree with him not targeting certain demographics, but All demographics and I Apologize for that Sincerely, but I stand by All the rest I said!!! 😉
In short they are working to market an image they can build on vs. just say buy this damn car because it is good.
Marketing like this is like planting seeds it takes time and nurturing to build on them and establish an image.
The Ultimate Driving Machine took a few years to build too. You can not just market and sell an image in a hand full of commercials.
If Cadillac were like Benz with an established rep they could market at will. The fact is I see more Dare Greatly ads every night as they are on most channels and during every hour.
Cadillac will build and expand on this and drive excitement into the marketing to get people interested. I expect we will see it in the near future with more focus on the CT6 at first and then to the V series models about to be released. No sense promoting them now with them months from release so you build image first.
At this point we have displayed product for years but as you can see even good product has not enticed asses in the seats like we would like.
This segment sells mostly on Lust, vanity and ego. Lets face it no one needs a car in this class we want cars in this segment for what they do and say about the owner. That is where image comes into play.
Why does an Escalade sell. Well because of the image of the people who owned them for the last 10 plus years. Sports figures, Music and actors. Etc.
Cadillac has a new marketing company that they are working with now . And this team needs to get themselves on the same page as the engineers and product managers . We need to see commercials that not only get you interested in the vehicle . they need to sell an image . Most of the posts are right you dont see any commercials of Cadillacs flooding the airwaves . The ATS and CTS are not selling . hopefully the V-series will help move some metal , You probably wont see an XTS spot any time soon , the SRX is getting along in years till the new one finally shows up and then the ELR why bother , and we all know Cadillac doent need to waste their money toughting the Escalade they cant build enough of them or fast enough . What is left to advertise this year ……………………………..?
I really expect the new marketing to focus on the product once the new product is about to reach the dealers. The idea is to promote the new stuff and they will start with the CT6 first and then move to the CTS V and ATS V. They will then try to carry the V products excitement to the regular ATS and CTS lines.
Also the 2016 CTS and ATS will get a lot of new features and I think they will wait to promote that vs. on promoting the 2015 for 3 months and then start over.
Yes I agree we will see little XTS, SRX and ELR. These will play out their final yeas with little marketing. The new SRX with the new name will get the marketing next year.
I suspect they will use the CT6 as the main focus and let it enhance the images of the other product in the car line. While it Is not the ultimate flagship it will be the acting flagship for 5 years.
Really watch as the V series cars will bring a lot of attention on the other two models once released. I have seen early versions of a couple auto magazines for July and they still do not have a road test so they may wait till August or Sept for the embargo to lift.