Cars also tell stories
Despite budget constraints, exceptional car advertising is not a luxury
Despite budget constraints, exceptional car advertising is not a luxuryby luca aloisiLast year, gross investment in the car industry fell by 4.6 percent to around 336 million francs (Mediafocus 2000). Nevertheless, the car industry remains the second largest advertiser in Switzerland. However, its advertising has a reputation for being rather simple-minded. This has recently been confirmed by campaigns that are as identical as one another.
A considerable number of entries are submitted to international competitions in the car category. However, the yield is usually meagre. Swiss advertising agencies are not to blame for this, as hardly any campaigns of their own are designed for cars in this country. Swiss creative agencies mainly limit themselves to adapting campaigns created for the global village by lead agencies abroad. Special national campaigns are frowned upon.
Only rarely do exceptional ads, let alone TV commercials, stand out from the crowd. The knitting pattern remains the same: the car comes into play as an important visual element. To create the brand's own identity profile, it is best to add an attitude to life, beautiful landscapes and people as well as a few euphonious phrases such as "Realization of ambitions" (Lexus) or "The power of discretion" (Jaguar). The identification models for buyers are finished.
After the majority of brands had already said goodbye to rational reasons such as value for money or durability a good three years ago, the emotional elements of design and art predominated in the advertising formula for cars.
If you leaf through the supplements to the 71st International Motor Show in Geneva, you realize that car design has become the most important sales vehicle. Stories are hardly told any more. Reduction to the product instead of decorating the label with distracting codes. This seems to be the motto for market launches in particular, as the example of the Mini from the Sulzer Sutter agency demonstrates strikingly and conspicuously, even if it had to adapt to the given corporate design of an international campaign that had not yet been launched.
Co-owner Roland Sutter refuses to generalize: "We always try to use additional elements to create themed advertising for BMW in order to get away from pure sheet metal eroticism." However, he admits that the car as an object of desire will continue to play a major role in the narrow image spaces in the future. In addition, other consumer goods appearances rarely win prizes in creative competitions.
Many are similar in form to the mini ad, as is the appearance for the Alfa 147. In this, as in almost all car campaigns, the Cuore sportivo only seems to beat for the spot realization. Here, a "die-hard" Alfa driver takes on the elemental forces of nature and wins the bet against a hurricane. After passing the test of courage, a whirled-up tractor burrows into the ground next to the spared 147.
Only a few Swiss agencies that serve car customers also tell stories in their advertisements. And the number of agencies that can do this well despite internationally prescribed CDs is even smaller. One of these is Studer & Wohlgemuth, which has been delivering a high proportion of its own creative work for Mercedes-Benz (Switzerland) since 1992.
"We benefit from decentralized communication with a common branding strategy and a CD concept," says Guido Studer. The decentralized communication consistently follows Mercedes' branding strategy, which is based on the three trend themes of lifestyle, multifunctionality and individuality. The Zurich agency also works according to this strategy, whether it adapts, tops, tailors or designs campaigns for the Swiss market itself.
At Lowe Lintas GGK, Zurich, CD Mark Stahel can also live well with the international editions, because "thanks to the large amount of free space, more than half of all VW ads are his own creations". Among other things, he created the Golf motif without a car, but with a retractable metal duck, "because people already know the Golf anyway". Stahel's conclusion: without a stopper and resolution with a good punchline, no original campaign can be created, even in car advertising.
A considerable number of entries are submitted to international competitions in the car category. However, the yield is usually meagre. Swiss advertising agencies are not to blame for this, as hardly any campaigns of their own are designed for cars in this country. Swiss creative agencies mainly limit themselves to adapting campaigns created for the global village by lead agencies abroad. Special national campaigns are frowned upon.
Only rarely do exceptional ads, let alone TV commercials, stand out from the crowd. The knitting pattern remains the same: the car comes into play as an important visual element. To create the brand's own identity profile, it is best to add an attitude to life, beautiful landscapes and people as well as a few euphonious phrases such as "Realization of ambitions" (Lexus) or "The power of discretion" (Jaguar). The identification models for buyers are finished.
After the majority of brands had already said goodbye to rational reasons such as value for money or durability a good three years ago, the emotional elements of design and art predominated in the advertising formula for cars.
If you leaf through the supplements to the 71st International Motor Show in Geneva, you realize that car design has become the most important sales vehicle. Stories are hardly told any more. Reduction to the product instead of decorating the label with distracting codes. This seems to be the motto for market launches in particular, as the example of the Mini from the Sulzer Sutter agency demonstrates strikingly and conspicuously, even if it had to adapt to the given corporate design of an international campaign that had not yet been launched.
Co-owner Roland Sutter refuses to generalize: "We always try to use additional elements to create themed advertising for BMW in order to get away from pure sheet metal eroticism." However, he admits that the car as an object of desire will continue to play a major role in the narrow image spaces in the future. In addition, other consumer goods appearances rarely win prizes in creative competitions.
Many are similar in form to the mini ad, as is the appearance for the Alfa 147. In this, as in almost all car campaigns, the Cuore sportivo only seems to beat for the spot realization. Here, a "die-hard" Alfa driver takes on the elemental forces of nature and wins the bet against a hurricane. After passing the test of courage, a whirled-up tractor burrows into the ground next to the spared 147.
Only a few Swiss agencies that serve car customers also tell stories in their advertisements. And the number of agencies that can do this well despite internationally prescribed CDs is even smaller. One of these is Studer & Wohlgemuth, which has been delivering a high proportion of its own creative work for Mercedes-Benz (Switzerland) since 1992.
"We benefit from decentralized communication with a common branding strategy and a CD concept," says Guido Studer. The decentralized communication consistently follows Mercedes' branding strategy, which is based on the three trend themes of lifestyle, multifunctionality and individuality. The Zurich agency also works according to this strategy, whether it adapts, tops, tailors or designs campaigns for the Swiss market itself.
At Lowe Lintas GGK, Zurich, CD Mark Stahel can also live well with the international editions, because "thanks to the large amount of free space, more than half of all VW ads are his own creations". Among other things, he created the Golf motif without a car, but with a retractable metal duck, "because people already know the Golf anyway". Stahel's conclusion: without a stopper and resolution with a good punchline, no original campaign can be created, even in car advertising.
