General Motors Canada is revving its engine with a large advertising campaign that includes station takeovers, a major TV presence and a launch-day experiential execution at Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square.
The event featured several vehicle demonstrations, including the opportunity to sit in the car while the 10 airbags slowly inflated and the option to play Cruze karaoke, singing along to the music playing on the Cruze stereo system.
The ad campaign started on Sunday with GM running 30- and 60-second ads throughout football games and in the evening on every show on four major networks between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. The ads also appeared on nearly every specialty channel. Radio ads are running, and billboards are up, in the top 15 markets in Canada. The Cruze campaign is also taking over a half-dozen subway and train stations in Toronto and Montreal. Online efforts include a large media buy, videos posted to the Chevrolet Canada YouTube channel and the launch of the Chevrolet Canada Facebook page.
The media buyer is M2 Universal in Toronto, and creative and online were handled by MacLaren McCann, also in Toronto.
The target market for the campaign is broad, with the car company trying to hit males and females 25 to 54, Mike Speranzini, director, advertising, GM Canada, tells MiC.
‘You name it, everyone drives compact cars in Canada, so it’s a broad, far-reaching media plan. We want to have impact on day one of the launch and then extend it over the coming weeks and months,’ Speranzini says.
He added that the campaign, which relies heavily on the fact the car was ‘globally driven, globally tested and globally proven,’ is a return to form for GM.
‘It definitely feels very international, very global, cool, energetic, perhaps not a place Chevrolet’s been in a little while, so we’re pretty excited for the tone and the feel of the brand.’
GM Canada also announced Monday it’ll again be partnering with TSN to present the Chevrolet Cruze Million Dollar Shootout on Dec. 31. The contest winner will take to the ice during the first intermission of the Canada-Sweden hockey game of the IIHF World U20 Championship.
If the contestant scores 20 goals on an empty net in 24 seconds, from the far blue line, they will win $1 million. There will also be an opportunity to win up to three Cruzes when the contestant and two friends each attempt to score 10 goals in 15 seconds from centre ice.
The contest has its own microsite and runs until Dec. 5, with one entrant randomly chosen on Dec. 10 to take part on New Year’s Eve.
