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April 05, 2006
Me on Nightline
Well, part of me.
The Chevy Tahoe ad I made two weeks ago and posted on YouTube was featured on ABC's Nightline last night. Here's the Nightline segment.
I could have been on Nightline talking about this whole imbroglio if I had seen the email box of my YouTube account yesterday with the message marked URGENT from Nightline producer Shani. Doh! : )
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» 上●あいが“エロドル”完全密着！ from 総合チャンネル、エロの巻
上●あいが“エロドル”完全密着！
得意の“お手伝い”ポーズ
雑誌やテレビで活躍するグラビアアイドルが「着エロ以上ＡＶ未満」を演じる新ＤＶＤレーベル「エロドル」が誕生し、その第１弾として、上●あいが“エロドル”１号…ＴＶじゃＮＧのアノ姿
身長１６５センチ、Ｂ８２・Ｗ５９・Ｈ８８のミディアムスリムなボディーで野性的なワイルドポーズで見る男性を挑発する。
ほかに「放送禁止用語」連発の“言葉責め”やローションにまみれての“迫り”なんて
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So people are sharing what they want from a car… will SUV
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Nice. Way to go Jackie! I was going to buy a Chevy Tahoe for my next car, but maybe I'll go with the Hybrid instead ;)
Just curious Jackie, but what do you recommend as a good buy for the family of 5, 6, or 7 that takes occassional trips to visit family 5-6 hours away?
I know, it's very chic to slam GM or SUV's and it is hard to turn down the opportunity to slam both at the same time. I just find the whole "Don't buy SUV's" solution to the energy crisis as a bit simplistic.
But, that's not really the point, is it? GM put their toes in the consumer-generated media water and found it a bit frigid. Though it did get them some free pub on Nightline.
FYI - I don't own an SUV. Our family vehicle is a minivan, but I realize that's not for everyone.
Good press, bad press, better than nothing.
In my opinion, it's all still good for GM. At least people are looking at the Tahoe. Anyone considering an SUV, one way or the other, are getting lots of "looks" at the new Tahoe. All free pub for GM.
I wouldn't call it a GM marketing failure. Perhaps an interesting experiment that needs some tweaking.
As a "Ford guy" I say GM should be applauded for an innovative idea. It's too soon to tell if this campaign was a good or bad idea, but even if it's a flop, others should try it. Did you ride your bicycle the first time you tried? Or did you fall off?
Dustin,
My sister has 3 kids and says she can't live without her Ford Expedition. I give her a hard time about that because when she and I were growing up, taking trips around the country with our parents and brother in
a Pontiac Bonneville sedan worked out just fine.
As for 5-7 kids, if only the typical American family were that size. The
U.S. Census Bureau says the average American household size is 2.59 people.
http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-8.pdf
I think the bigger picture in all of this is the growing concern about global warming and the role SUVs play in it. GM's contest uncorked an already simmering pressure cooker of social commentary. I think the real beef is with the 1- or 2-person households that drive big, gas-guzzling, road-hogging, damage-causing SUVs, not the families of Eight is Enough.
As I say in my post, I think this would have been avoided had GM designed a different program for Tahoe enthusiasts. And the question still stands: ARE there any Tahoe enthusiasts these days?
Good points, all.
re: jackie's take on the "real beef" i'd say the real beef is not small households driving big trucks, but rather this: why don't they have a choice? where's the tahoe hybrid? where are the incentives (gov't, i mean) to produce more fuel efficient vehicles? wired just did a story on electric cars that go 200mph. the technology is there, but i guess the japanese are going to own this segment (again). imagine the incredible word-of-mouth that would develop if GM developed a line of super powerful hybrid trucks? so what if they were $200k and only movie stars bought them? it's a start.
Great point, Owen. GM's problems today are a pretty stark reflection of the short-term thinking propogated by Wall Streeters, not the long-term strategic thinking Japan practices eminently better.
In response to Ben's post to Fastlane.gmblogs.com wanting details on the campaign, here ya go... of total submissions to chevyapprentice.com, about 84% have been straight, product-pieces that are favorable to the Tahoe. The majority of the remaining 16% of submissions, are either anti-SUV (as a category) or the creator is using the ad as a platform to promote a specific cause or (sadly) to defame a particular group - a small minority of submissions directly attack the product.
We're currently up to nearly 4 million page views, 400,000 unique visitors and over 22,000 ad submission.
We're still listening and talking and the exchange has been worthwhile - thanks for taking part.
GM needs to talk more about their upcoming hybrids and the hybrid options I found at http://www.gm.com/company/gmability/adv_tech/300_hybrids/fact_sheets.html
Then, they can use some of those 16% of non-favorable pieces and answer them with how they are listening to what those customers are looking for. :)
I would recommend making the hybrids a LOT more prominent on GM's landing page. I only found them because I was specifically looking for them. (no search function?)
I see the Tahoe is one of the ones that will have a hybridized version. Makes it easy to choose a good fuel-efficency/emissions submission, run it, and say "Here's what we've done for YOU." Of course, the only mileage quoted for these is "25% improvement" and I have to ask, "Over WHAT?" Some hard numbers will be nice to see when you take these to market.
Owen made the point much better than I. Give families an option and you'll likely make fortune.
But also consider that there is a class of SUV that really is just an ego-pleasing, modern day station wagon. The Lexus RX330, the Nissan Murano, the Chevy HHR, et al.
These skew statistics, in my opinion. Much has been made out of the rise of SUVs as a % of autos purchased. Of course, the converse effect is that it skews MPG statistics as well.
Jackie, I meant families of 5-7 total individuals. You know, 3-5 kids. Sorry for the confusion.
