Fisker Reboots Marketing With Old Media Ad Buy
In what Fisker insists is not a defensive reaction to a cascade of bad news that has put the company’s continued survival in doubt in at least a few observers’ minds, Fisker’s ad agencies, eMaxx Partners and Mono, have run a series of ads strung out over five pages of Friday’s Wall Street Journal print edition.
The ad buy consisted of four quarter-page ads followed by a full page devoted to Fisker. A representative of eMaxx called the ads a “sneak peek of the brand voice” that will be further exposed in a larger worldwide marketing campaign to be launched in the third quarter of 2012. Though the campaign was kicked off with an ad buy at one of the oldest of old media outlets, the larger campaign will include a variety of media outlets by not much in the way of television ads. The main thrust of the campaign seems to be painting Fisker as a visionary company akin to the inventors of the 19th and 20th centuries that brought us the modern world.
In the press email announcing the WSJ ads, Henrik Fisker said, “Launching a new car company is a difficult enough challenge on its own and one that is rarely attempted, let alone also trying to establish a new brand with a revolutionary new product and technology.” Roger Ormisher, director of global PR for Fisker, said, “The ads are about celebrating the achievement of bringing a new car company to market during one of the worst economic downturns ever. There are always critics and skeptics of any new project, especially one that’s been in the political spotlight. But this is underlining what we achieved.”
The ad buy in the Journal might seem anachronistic for a technology based product but despite new media and the growing impact of social networks, but if you want to sell cars to the people who can afford a $100,000 second or third car (which because of the Karma’s limited range it necessarily would be – Justin Bieber has a Cadillac CTS-V wagon to drive when his chrome wrapped Fisker Karma is low on juice) there are worse places than the weekend editions of the Wall Street Journal. For decades the automotive classifieds in the Journal have been like a candy store for car enthusiasts, and they continue to be so as other newspapers get put out of business by the Scylla of eBay and Charybdis of Craigslist. The classified automotive section of the WSJ of course has the high buck Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Rolls-Royces that you’d expect but there usually are some interesting collectible enthusiasts cars for those on a slight more limited budget also listed by private parties or by exoticar dealers. Simply put, rich folks still read the print edition of the Wall Street Journal.
Fisker ad copy:
New isn’t easy.
History will tell you the new path is often the most difficult.
Discovery, far more work than settling.
But history will also tell you there are always a few who simply don’t care.
They don’t care that pushing forward is 4,000 times harder than being pulled along.
They don’t care that giant leaps require more than a single step.
And they don’t care that not everyone is behind them.
Because they know the doubters aren’t the builders.
The critics are never the creators.
And the skeptics, rarely the inventors.
When we set out to redefine and reshape how the
world thinks about cars, we knew it wouldn’t be easy.
And despite our many firsts, accomplishments, and accolades, it hasn’t been.
But that’s alright.
Building the future never is.
Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, the original 3D car site.
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- Alan Well, it will take 30 years to fix Nissan up after the Renault Alliance reduced Nissan to a paltry mess.I think Nissan will eventually improve.
- Alan This will be overpriced for what it offers.I think the "Western" auto manufacturers rip off the consumer with the Thai and Chinese made vehicles.A Chinese made Model 3 in Australia is over $70k AUD(for 1995 $45k USD) which is far more expensive than a similar Chinesium EV of equal or better quality and loaded with goodies.Chinese pickups are $20k to $30k cheaper than Thai built pickups from Ford and the Japanese brands. Who's ripping who off?
- Alan Years ago Jack Baruth held a "competition" for a piece from the B&B on the oddest pickup story (or something like that). I think 5 people were awarded the prizes.I never received mine, something about being in Australia. If TTAC is global how do you offer prizes to those overseas or are we omitted on the sly from competing?In the end I lost significant respect for Baruth.
- Alan My view is there are good vehicles from most manufacturers that are worth looking at second hand.I can tell you I don't recommend anything from the Chrysler/Jeep/Fiat/etc gene pool. Toyotas are overly expensive second hand for what they offer, but they seem to be reliable enough.I have a friend who swears by secondhand Subarus and so far he seems to not have had too many issue.As Lou stated many utes, pickups and real SUVs (4x4) seem quite good.
- 28-Cars-Later So is there some kind of undiagnosed disease where every rando thinks their POS is actually valuable?83K miles Ok.new valve cover gasket.Eh, it happens with age. spark plugsOkay, we probably had to be kewl and put in aftermarket iridium plugs, because EVO.new catalytic converterUh, yeah that's bad at 80Kish. Auto tranny failing. From the ad: the SST fails in one of the following ways:Clutch slip has turned into; multiple codes being thrown, shifting a gear or 2 in manual mode (2-3 or 2-4), and limp mode.Codes include: P2733 P2809 P183D P1871Ok that's really bad. So between this and the cat it suggests to me someone jacked up the car real good hooning it, because EVO, and since its not a Toyota it doesn't respond well to hard abuse over time.$20,000, what? Pesos? Zimbabwe Dollars?Try $2,000 USD pal. You're fracked dude, park it in da hood and leave the keys in it.BONUS: Comment in the ad: GLWS but I highly doubt you get any action on this car what so ever at that price with the SST on its way out. That trans can be $10k + to repair.
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Lefties can never win on facts. Slurs and name calling is their stock in trade.
I would be in Fisker's camp except Tesla seems to be putting out better cars cheaper. Tesla is also not only doing its own engineering, but also doing custom engineering for other companies.