Tag archives: general motors

Product placement gets smarter

Product placement evolves and meets online video. Mediapost reports CBS will put a bonus scene from CSI: Miami on its website featuring a plot twist that will not be revealed to television viewers until later in the season. This is already a smart marketing move for the broadcaster, but the the big news for advertisers is that the bonus scene page will be sponsored by General Motors’ Hummer brand of trucks which will also actually appear in the bonus scene itself. This is actually something that confirms there is life after the 30 seconds commercial, and that product placement can be done in more sophisticated (and smart ways) than just showing a guy drinking a Coke in a popular tv series.

File under: cbs, csi miami, general motors, product placement

CNN: free videos, longer ads

Chase and General Motors are the first sponsors of the new CNN free video service. The interest of users towards online video is growing and so is the appeal of the format to advertisers. CNN’s broadband video used to be subscription based, but now the money from advertising is proving more interesting, considering the evolution of video ads formats becoming available. Among the others, CNN will be able to offer advertisers the opportunity to run ads up to 30 seconds long.

File under: chase, cnn, general motors, video advertising

GM and the “No Worries” campaign

ClickZ reports General Motors will launch a print and online advertising campaign in the US to create awareness of the GM Certified Used Vehicles. The ads feature the tagline “No Worries” and use a series of images to explain that when you buy a used car there are a lot of things you no longer have to worry about. The agency behind the campaign is IPG’s Mullen. Online ads will appear, among the others on Autotrader, Aol Autos and Cars.com. Search engine advertising will also be part of the effort with keywords bought on Google and MSN Search.

File under: general motors, online campaign, used cars

Automakers advertising online

It seems like automakers believe in the Internet potentials to increase brand awareness and indirectly to generate more sales. In these days I’ve found two articles talking about Ford and General Motors efforts to take advantage of the Web to regain market share. On iMediaConnection Sara Wilson talks about “All new 2003 Ford Expedition” a new campaign created to draw attention and make people interact with the brand. The campaign has been run with different ads and features on the three world’s main portals: Yahoo! Msn.com and Aol.com because, as Kristen Bergmann, Digital Media Director and Senior Partner at J. Walter Thompson explains:

“We felt that we would reach most of the Internet population if we were to choose these three [portals], and they all happened to be existing partners of ours that we knew could deliver”.

On the other side we have General Motors who has just launched an online banner campaign to drive qualified traffic to the newly relaunched GMBuyPower.com. As DMNews reports, Flash-enabled banners have been developed by Zentropy Partners, with skyscrapers, horizontals and standard formats in different sizes and 120 creative executions. And Steve Woolford, executive vice president and worldwide managing director at Zentropy explains:

“The beauty of this advertising is that it links up that part of the BuyPower site that most people are interested in. If someone’s not considering a GM vehicle, it’s silly to give them the tool to shop. If they’re not aware, we must make them aware. If someone’s not considering, we must make them.”

File under: auto makers, branding online, ford, general motors, online advertising