More thoughts on Oprah's Can Buy My Love Car Extravaganza.

I heard Mark-Hans Richer, Pontiac's director of marketing, interviewed on the radio this afternoon. He mentioned that the project, initiated by Pontiac, had been in the works for a year. They(Pontiac) had approached Oprah's people after seeing the marketing success of the Oprah's Favorite Things shows. He said they followed things to there natural conclusion. They wanted to go so big that no other car company could follow. If they had just done 100 cars than that would have left the door open for another car company to come in and do cars for a whole audience.

They realized they needed to go big in order to own the opportunity.

I'd say they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Word of the promotion has been all over the news and entertainment media for the last two days. I'd say Pontiac got far more than their $7 million worth.

Do you have any stories where you maxed out an opportunity or where you left the door open for other marketers to go bigger and steal your thunder?

Update: Reuters reports: "Visits to GM's web site Pontiac.com soared more than eight-fold to 242,000 on Monday when Oprah Winfrey gave the Pontiac car to each of the 276 members of her audience. The $7 million giveaway, courtesy of GM, kicks off a $50 million marketing and advertising campaign for the new car over the next four months, said Jim Bunnell, general manager of the Pontiac-GMC brands." link

Related:
Oprah Continues to Blur the Line
Oprah's Favorite Things

Comments

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

The media coverage for this Pontiac PR stunt is remarkable. But, what’s remarkable about the Pontiac G6?

Sure, it’s a sleek mid-size car with a long wheelbase and a unique panoramic roof. But that’s not really remarkable, is it? Neither is the fact the G6 was designed to replace the highly unremarkable Grand Am.

I get the feeling this PR stunt will flame-out fast once people realize there ain’t nuthin’ remarkable about the Pontiac G6.

[Peter Davidson]

John, You present a good point. In this case it's all about the PR and the personality brand involved. The lack of remarkable attributes is almost irrelevant to the fact that huge buzz has been started. Yes, the product may or may not be successful but the fact is they have a great launch. At this point no one seems to be interested in the qualities of the car they just seem interested in the marketing stunt.

The question people will ask themselves is which of the unremarkable mid size sedans do they want to drive...oh, how about the one Oprah gave away!

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy))]

True ... the huge buzz has started. But consumers cannot immediately follow-through on the buzz as Pontiac dealerships are yet not selling the car and will not have the car to sell until sometime in October. Anyone else see an issue with us?

(Yeah, the purchase cycle for a $23K+ car is weeks and not days but with all the Oprah excitement I bet Pontiac could have sold a few G6s this week if they were on the selling floor.)

And you are also right-on by saying the attention so far has been on the qualities of the marketing/pr stunt and not on the car.

At some point the car is going to have to sell itself as the positive Oprah juju will fade. And from the little I have read/seen of the G6 I think the G6 will be challenged to sell itself.