Chrysler to Break Blow Out Marketing Campaign for Sebring

Chrysler has unleashed a major integrated marketing campaign—leveraging tactics from product integrations to sweepstakes to direct mail—to gain a stronghold in the highly competitive mid-size car market.

The 2007 Chrysler Sebring is the focus of the campaign, which runs through March, and is used as part of a December sweepstakes prize in a deal with Everyday With Rachael Ray, the magazine developed by cooking author and TV show hostess Rachael Ray. The Culinary Road Trips Sweepstakes will give the winner the car to use on a trip to a yet-to-be announced seven-day trip that includes airfare, hotel, meals and lodging.

As for product integration, the sedan will be featured during such programs as Movie Night on Oxygen, TBS Movie Extra Spotlight on TBS and Character Road Trip on the USA Network. In an Internet roadblock later in November, the Sebring will be the only product advertised on the home page of Amazon.com for a 24-hour period. The initiative is expected to gain 5 million impressions from Web viewers, Chrysler said.

And, in the weeks leading up to the Dec. 18 announcement of TIME magazine’s Person of the Year, Sebring banner ads will appear on TIME.com where consumers cast votes. Beginning Nov. 13, consumers can submit a digital headshot of themselves to the TIME Web site with some photos selected to appear briefly on a 45-foot Sebring-branded electronic display in Times Square in New York City, from Dec. 1-17. The consumer photos—interspersed with those of famous people—will appear framed inside the TIME magazine cover page.

Meanwhile, 125,000 interactive CDs will be sent via direct mail to consumers who have opted in to receive marketing materials from Chrysler. The CDs feature a 360-degree view of the Sebring with live links to the Web site, said Susan Thomson, senior manager of Chrysler brand communication.

And in an ethnic push, Chrysler will target Asians in the New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco market with TV spots, print and online in Mandarin, Korean and Hindu. Chinese Moon Festivals in these markets will be targeted with a mobile unit (which currently travels to 21 markets across the U.S.) to offer consumers test rides of Sebrings and other Chrysler vehicles.

To reach the African-American community, Chrysler is currently the sponsor of a Patti Labelle concert series (PROMO Xtra Oct. 11, 2006).

“Be targeted, be relevant and be in the community is our goal,” said David Rooney, director, Chrysler marketing and global communications. “We want communities to take the product and experience the vehicles first hand and let them keep the dialogue going, that’s what we’re trying to do.”

The overall campaign breaks tomorrow with a 30-second TV spot (followed by a second spot due out later in November) and four print ads to promote the 2007 Sebring.

Wind Tunnel TV spots features an engineer who watches from his control booth as a Sebring is tested in a wind tunnel. The spot will air on The Nine, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Boston Legal and Desperate Housewives (ABC), 20 Good Years, Law & Order: SVU, Medium, My Name is Earl and Biggest Loser (on NBC) and late-night talk show programs on NBC and CBS. Additional programming includes NFL and college football, golf and the NBA. Cable TV networks also will play a key role, with Sebring spots running on Food Network, HGTV, Fine Living, DIY, USA, BET, National Geographic, Animal Planet and more.

Four print ads will appear in Sports Illustrated, Golf for Women, Tennis, Newsweek, Ladies’ Home Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, Vogue Living, Redbook, In Style, Motor Trend, Car & Driver, Automobile and Road & Track; as well as USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and other national newspapers.

Since September, Chrysler has been reaching consumers with a podcast of music legends and Internet games. Sebring Semantics, for example, is a word game in which features of the Sebring are revealed with every successful completion of a level. Targeted at women (who are expected to make up 60% of Chrysler Sebring buyers), Semantics players are spending 22 minutes per session playing the game online, Chrysler said. There are currently eight other games on the Chrysler product home page. In the music legends podcast series, visitors can download for free up to five tracks from featured artists such as Johnny Cash, Miles Davis, Journey, Gloria Estefan and Tony Bennett.

What’s the cost for all of the marketing clout? Chrysler executives wouldn’t say. But an indicator may be the $100 million alone the company spent for its “Ask. Dr. Z” campaign this summer, which touted its American and German engineering origins. As part of that campaign, consumers posed questions relating to the automaker’s vehicles on AskDrZ (PROMO Xtra July 5, 2006).

BBD Detroit is the lead agency on the initiative. GlobalHue, Southfield, MI, handles multicultural TV and print components and some events.

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