Maybe we've been wrong and you really can teach an old dog new tricks — or if not an old dog, maybe at least an old company. With the release of the G5, Pontiac's newest member of the General's arrow-headed tribe badge, the marketing and advertising folks over at the RenCen are making a new marketing move no automaker's yet made — they're going online-only. That's right — no cheesy Leo Burnett created tv ads for this badge-engineered addition to the Chief's brand — it's all going online. Although the General refuses to let us know how much is being spent, Mark-Hans Richer, Pontiac's marketing director claims it'll be 60%-70% less than the usual cost of marketing a new vehicle such as the G5 — a cost Ad Age's Jean Halliday pens at...
...about $25 million. Will it work? Who knows — but with a somewhat non-despcript badge-swap job like the G5, why not try and shoot for the moon...although after the problems the brand had with the whole "Google Pontiac" thing, who the hell knows if the execution'll be as spot-on as the idea.
Pontiac G5 Blazes Trail to Exclusively-Internet Advertising [Advertising Age]
Related:
Wherefore Art Thou, Oprah? Pontiac's Singular G5 Of Kindness [internal]