Silhouette: The Sequel
Oldsmobile gave dealers an encore-in-a-box for its movie minivan’s second year.
Oldsmobile won accolades when it introduced Silhouette Premiere last year, the first minivan with a built-in entertainment center (January promo). Olds tapped movie classics The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind for TV spots, swapped Blockbuster Video gift cards for test drives, and outfitted dealers with red carpets and velvet ropes to showcase the van. Olds racked up 16,000 test drives and sold 2,400 Premiere vans from September through December, not bad following the summer United Auto Workers strike that left Olds with limited inventory.
The setting was different this year. Chevy Venture was touting a built-in video system. And General Motors’ first-quarter restructuring had sales reps scrambling to learn all 54 brands they were now pitching to dealers. GM merged all its division-specific sales forces into a single group, so Olds no longer had its own sales force. That meant promos had to be turn-key for dealers, but glitzy enough to capture their imagination.
“We wanted to get attention with a clever mailing, but we also had to keep it simple,” says Silhouette assistant brand manager Joni Rainbolt.
Enter PIB. The nicknamed “promotion in a box” gave dealers a full-year campaign, including a repeat of the Blockbuster test-drive offer and TV, print, outdoor, and direct-mail ads for dealers to tag with their own info. A Pro Book gave guidelines for tie-ins with local Blockbuster stores and an American Film Institute tour. Oldsmobile sponsored the March-August “100 Years – 100 Movies” 20-city mall tour promoting AFI’s list of the top 100 films. Olds had a display of two minivans and Wizard of Oz characters, and encouraged dealers to tie-in when the tour was in town.
PIB also had a tape of TV spots, including Silhouette’s first-ever promotional spot touting the Blockbuster gift card offer. “We didn’t know how dealers would react because the spot is a spoof of a test drive,” Rainbolt says. “When they saw it the first time, they applauded.”
The Blockbuster offer runs through December; ads ran May through June, prime van-buying season. Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, handles advertising and promotion for Olds.
The campaign generated 31,000 test drives as of October, beyond Olds’ projections. Silhouette sales hit 9,000 in the first nine months. The company may develop a “more involved” PIB for 2000, Rainbolt says, and may tap its regional satellite offices for more off-dealership displays in malls, sports venues, and the like.
Meanwhile, Olds taps its new Warner Bros. alliance for an October-through-January sweepstakes for Silhouette dubbed Start Something Magical. The sweeps is pegged to the Oct. 19 re-release of The Wizard of Oz on video, and gives away a Silhouette Premiere. Three million videos carry Silhouette’s launch ad; print ads and dealer posters support, via Burnett.
