Jeep ‘Bugs’ Out in Most Integrated Campaign

Creepy crawly bugs will scale building walls, appear on TV screens, emerge in video games and invade magazine pages as part of a Jeep campaign, which breaks today. At second glance, the creatures are really Jeep Wrangler vehicles that look like bugs from above when carrying sporting equipment on their roofs.

As part of the multi-layered Bugs campaign, images of the insects will crawl everywhere, including on rotating and mobile billboards, wallscapes, building and storefront wraps and graffiti murals in key markets such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Washington, DC, Detroit, Chicago and San Francisco.

An aerial view of the bugs reveal Jeep Wranglers carrying tools of the Jeep lifestyle, including kayaks, surfboards, snowboards and backpacking gear. Building wraps feature the bugs crawling up and/or around buildings, leading to a traditional billboard featuring a side view of the Wrangler Unlimited.

“It’s the most integrated program that Jeep has ever had,” said Jeep spokesperson Eileen Wunderlich. “We’re using different types of media to reach Wrangler owners and prospects. The whole idea behind the campaign is really about the Jeep lifestyle as Jeep owners tend to be young in attitude or age and are very outgoing, outdoorsy people.”

The 360 Bugs marketing campaign will roll over into 2007, “reaching Jeep owners and Jeep prospects where they are whether reading a magazine, watching TV or on the Internet,” she added.

In print ads, the bugs will appear in magazine inserts and multiple page spreads. Men’s, sports, music, entertainment, outdoor/adventure, automotive, women’s and health/fitness publications including Esquire, Men’s Journal, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Automobile, Car and Driver, Wheeler and Motor Trend will carry ads.

In one ad, readers search to find the bugs from among 16 different varieties shown, with four aerial views of the Wrangler or Wrangler Unlimited hidden among pictures of the real bugs.

In the Sept. 19 issue of USA Today, bugs will appear to burrow through editorial copy, before morphing into a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited ad. Elsewhere, a hip-hop oriented print ad with the heading, “The culture grew…so did we,” will introduce the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited in publications reaching African-American consumers.

Meanwhile, online advertising will include banner ads and home page takeovers on Web sites, such as Edmunds.com, AOL.com, MSN.com, Yahoo.com and KellyBlueBook.com. An interactive presence includes video games and partnerships with DirecTV, Ripe TV, Mobi TV, Fuel TV’s Drive: Notes from the Wilderness with Mike V., and Actions Sports Lat34.

In addition, Jeep Wrangler will be integrated in TLC’s Miami Ink podcasts and will appear in three episodes beginning in November. The automaker will also be the sponsor of the first-ever Sports Illustrated This is My House fantasy football initiative, and the Action Sports Awards, produced by Fuel and airing on the Fox network.

Jeep also plans to sponsor several events where it will showcase the ads. It is the sponsor of the San Diego Film Festival which runs from Sept. 27 to Oct. 3. On TV, Wrangler spots begin with the season premieres of Extreme Home Makeover, Lost, Deal or No Deal, The Office, Boston Legal, Everybody Hates Chris, All of Us, The Game and Heroes. Additional programming includes NFL and college football and prime-time shows, such as NBC’s Studio 60, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; Fox’s House, CBS’s CSI: NY and other networks, including ABC, and cable channels Comedy Central, MTV, ESPN, FX and TBS. Five TV spots were created in total: Grooming, Bird, Lizard, Rock Crawler and Bigger Deffer, which pays homage to Wrangler’s place in the beginning stages of Hip Hop music.

Print and broadcast ads were created by BBDO Detroit; print and TV spot not following the bug theme (African-American market) were created by GlobalHue, Southfield, MI. Media pHD, Troy, MI, handled media planning and placement. Online materials were created by Organic Inc.’s Bloomfield Hills, MI, office.

“The Jeep brand is going through a major product offensive,” Wunderlich said. “In two years, we’ve gone from three vehicles to seven…but every Jeep vehicle has a different audience which requires different marketing components.”

So far, the marketing tactics of Auburn Hills, MI-based Jeep, a brand of DaimlerChrysler, appears to be paying off. Last year, sales of Jeep brand vehicles jumped 12% to their highest level since 2000 to 476,532 units compared with 2004 sales of 427,329 units. Internationally, Jeep brand sales grew 15% to 84,019 units in 2005 from 73,060 units in 2004.