Chrysler Goes to Church for African-American Push
In an effort to reach out to the African-American community, Chrysler is taking its cars to church to preach to the masses via a sponsorship of a Patti LaBelle tour.
The tour launched last week at mega church the Potter’s House in Dallas where Chrysler promoted its 2007 Chrysler Aspen SUV in the church’s parking lot through interactive vehicle displays and via ride-and-drive events held before each tour stop.
The 12-city concert tour, The Gospel According to Patti, is slated for churches in seven key African-American markets including Philadelphia, Detroit, Dallas, New York and Atlanta. The largest venue is Faithful Baptist Church in Los Angeles where Chrysler could reach 18,000 concertgoers.
“Obviously Patti LaBelle is very well known in the African-American market and we thought this was a good opportunity to get the brand and vehicles in front of one of our target audiences,” said James Kenyon, Chrysler Group brand marketing senior manager.
Before each concert, the automaker is hosting ride-and-drive events in select cities—Chicago, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, NY, Landover, MD, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Cleveland, OH—for consumers to sample its PT Cruiser, 300, Crossfire and Pacifica models (also on display at concert venues). Consumers who take a test drive get a free concert ticket and, for each test drive taken, Chrysler donates $5 to the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center, LaBelle’s designated charity. The center helps educate African Americans about the importance of early medical attention and treatment.
“We have specific plans targeted at ethnic audiences like the Hispanic and Asian audiences and this is really the spearhead of what we want to do to reach out to those audiences and to attract them to the brand,” Kenyon said.
Meanwhile, LaBelle is pushing the performances via radio spots in tour cities. The Gospel According to Patti is also the name of LaBelle’s first gospel CD, scheduled for release Nov. 21.Consumers visit PattiLaBelleGospel.com for tour information. The concerts wrap up March 31, 2007.
GlobalHue, Southfield, MI, the minority advertising agency for Auburn Hills, MI-based DaimlerChrysler handles.
