Cadillac will once again have a healthy presence during The Oscars, but one matter sticks out: there aren’t any new Cadillac vehicles to promote in these ads.
However, Cadillac chief marketing officer, Uwe Ellinghaus, has a different strategy, not just for The Oscars, but for the rest of 2017.
Ad Age spoke with Ellinghaus about how his team plans to approach a year with no new products coming in the pipeline. He thinks it’s actually a tremendous time to keep building the brand’s message.
“I have a launch pause for a new car, but it’s a great opportunity for me to send brand messages,” he said. “From a creative point of view, the agency loves the idea that they don’t have to launch a new car and feature it prominently because the creative degree of freedom is so much bigger than they now have,” he added.
Instead, Ellinghause previewed what we can expect to see. Specifically, Cadillac will feature the Escala concept car in at least one of its new ads.
“There are dealers who say, ‘why are you advertising a car you cannot buy?'” Ellinghause acknowledged. But he went on to say it “has immense appeal for me to be used in communication because it outlines the future design direction of Cadillac.”
“It just shows that we are evolving.”
Not only will the Escala be used, but older models will make appearances, too. The approach is meant to remind consumers Cadillac is still kicking, even though it has fewer vehicles on the road than its competitors.
Ellinghause added, “Particularly on the coasts, I need to increase the visual presence [of the brand] by advertising.”
Comments
I wonder if the decision to display the Escala concept may, partially, be to gauge the public’s interest in its potential as a Cadillac flagship sedan……? One can certainly hope. It’d still make more sense to display and advertise a car that’s actually in production for customers to purchase!
Cadillac wants and needs to keep it’s brand top of mind for potential customers.
Also they can still sell the CT6 and XT5 in the mean time until new products surface.
I still maintain that they will show a new product and maybe a re-designed version of a current vehicle at this NAIS.
There are 2 significant products Cadillac is aiming to release this year.
A plug-in hybrid CT6, which will be a ‘green’ large luxury sedan.
The SuperCruise semi-autonomous driving system should debut.
One out of 2 ain’t bad.
The CT6 hybrid can be classified as a product, I guess, but really it is a new trim level/powertrain option. It is no different than the 2.0T, 3.6NA or 3.0TT currently available.
The ‘Super Cruise’ is a new feature or option and not a distinct model or even trim level.
The CT6 PHEV should allow many people to commute to work in complete luxury without using gasoline.
Then for long trips, there is no lengthy waits at charging stations. If you’ve driven an EV drivetrain, you find that the ultimate in luxury is always waking up with a ‘full tank’. But it will not have range anxiety like other EVs.
We will see what is delivered as SuperCruise this year. The NHTSA halted it as being too autonomous until further testing was performed. It is more autonomous than the Tesla Autopilot system, which is considered the leader right now.
It is possible a Cadillac will be the most autonomous retail car in the world for 2017. We will see.
It really depends on how you use and perceive automobiles. If a car is a body shape that pleases strangers, Cadillac is not changing anything for 2017. If a car is a device that transports you between locations, then Cadillac could be offering the trickest people mover in history this year.
We will see.
I will never buy a Cadillac, or any other vehicle, for that matter, from China…….
Their vehicle naming is now really inconsistent – ATS, CTS, XTS, CT6, XT5 + Escalade, whatever marketing they perform.
This doesn’t help them in the slightest, I think. Maybe they should do something about this naming inconsistency situation?
On the way as the new models are introduced but I agree that they should just rename everything they can now versus as they introduce replacements.
To rename everything now would just complicate thing more so than they already are.
By the time you train the public on the old product then you would have to retrain them on the new product.
No need to fix the name till the product is fixed. This is key to show there has benn change.
Think about what Infiniti did when they recently renamed their all their products. It happened in very short order which reduces the confusion.
Well you can spend two year to convince people a ATS and CTS is a CT something then you have the new car and have to convince them the new model is not the old car.
Very counter productive and wasting money that could be used to make the CT what ever a better car.
To rename now is like digging two holes and piling the dirt from the first hole where you plan to dig the second hole. Normally that is called bad planning.
In the end it is the product that defines the name not the name defining the product.
Who her bought a car just because of the name?
No one buys a vehicle for the name however since Cadillac has chosen a new naming structure why not just do it already and change all the names at the same time.
By 2020 it should be…….CT2?, CT3, XT3, CT4, CT5, XT5, CT6, XT6, XTS should be gone, Escalade, future vehicles = XT8, a large CT Coupe, at least 3/4 new variants of “V” , CT sedan above the CT6, Escalade replacement =XT8, and….CST1 sharing the same chassis as the mid-engined Corvette……
Cadillac’s ‘Dare Greatly’ commercials are a big failure.. especially if the brand wants to target a younger buying segment as one would think pictures of Cadillac’s CTS-V streaking at 200 mph or the CT6 reclining rear seats would work better.
I couldn’t agree more !!! The Cadillac Dare Greatly Campaign is the worst in the Auto Industry. I can’t imagine anyone watching a CT6 driving slowly backwards, in the rain, and Saying…”Damn I’ve got to have one of those”. The new XT5 commercial isn’t any better…watching several women sitting out a down pour while listening to the radio wouldn’t motivate me to spend $50 grand on new car. Mr Ellinghaus, Cadillac’s CMO, should be reviewing the BMW and Mercedes campaigns. They seem to be working !!!
It’s just a rumor, but someone told us Trump would cut Mary B a break if she changed Cadillac’s tagline to
“Dare Bigly.”
That would be HUUUGE !!!
Please tell me this isn’t what Cadillac is coming to. I find it hideous.
The Cadillac commercials do not spark interest. Chevy has better commercials, showing a bunch of it’s cars.
And they only show SUVs + CT6. They should show them all, like most other brands do.
ATS had nice ads when it first came out, zooming down a mountain road.
The V cars are to spark interest, but they never show them.
Cadillac even stopped sponsoring a PGA Tour event at Trump’s Doral.
Now there is a new ATS and CTS V-Sport competitor, the new Kia Stinger on the way and the same size
as the 1st gen CTS, the car that saved Cadillac.