Dodge Signs Hipster Ad Agency Wieden + Kennedy
Of all of Chrysler Group’s branding conundrums, the de-Ram-ified Dodge brand has got to be one of the toughest ones. Without the truck-based image or styling, Dodge is a brand without a purpose, and Dodge CEO Ralph Gilles brought little to his brand presentation at Chrysler Group’s five-year plan that would help explain what Dodge is or why consumers should choose it. Other than more refined youthfulness and less rugged wisdom. Or something. Anyway, if Dodge is really to be “all things to all hip people” as the Autoextremist succinctly puts it, they sure picked the right ad agency. Wieden + Kennedy does hip like few others, having started with Nike’s “Just Do It” and taken off from there. As the ad above, and several other Honda spots prove, the guys knows how to bring some youthful enthusiasm to the otherwise staid, desperate world of car advertising. And goodness knows recent Chrysler Group advertising needs the help.
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Sadly, this new hip agency is going to be charged with the task of advertising the same garbage products that Chrysler's been hawking for the past few years. And hip is one thing that they are definitely not.
Dodge's target market is simple, it's the same one as Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota, Honda, etc., what I would call commodity cars. And it's OK to have a full-size model like the Charger and a sporty model like the Challenger, though the Charger needs an update. What's not OK is to have the Avenger and Caliber which supposedly cover the bread & butter, volume based, highly competitive segments. Dodge has absolutely nothing with those two chowder-headed models. I don't know how a "hip" ad agency promotes a non-hip company that has no "hip" models to sell.
This firm has a + in their name which tells me they're hip, but while their portfolio is impressive and they do good work, with all due respect, people were going to buy Nikes, Levis, and Hondas no matter who handled the ads. It won't be hard to improve on the many missteps Chrysler group has already taken adwise (the Journey, T&C, Ram, and Jeep ads are all, IMO, horrendously awful,) but this firm cannot perform miracles, and that's what they'll need in addition to lots of lipstick for the nigh unmarketable pig that is the Chrysler product portfolio. None of Chrysler Group's ads since the Fiat takeover have even attempted to make an argument for why their product deserves consideration over any other brand on the market. Blind brand loyalty and charity will only get you so far...