How entertainment can save automotive advertising

If you work in advertising you’ve noticed the widespread changes in messaging and content (and attentions spans) over the last five years.

There’s a lot of hand-wringing, bordering on despair, about what the future holds, and automotive advertising in particular has been hard hit. The once celebrated, big spending sector has seemingly become a reductive ‘car on a winding road’ format – saying little about the car and nothing about the brand. 

Behind this change is the biggest disruption in the automotive sector, probably since automotive even became a sector. 

It’s what the CEO of Jaguar Land Rover, Sir Ralf Speth, described as ‘a perfect storm for automotive companies’.

Let’s start with the fuel that powers our cars. First there was diesel-gate in 2015 and the volte-face back to petrol, which triggered mass confusion among consumers. As for electric, Volkswagen alone has spent $37 billion electrifying their future, but the margins on the new cars will be lower than their fossil fuel siblings because electric vehicles [EVs] are more expensive to make. 

Plus sales are dropping, there’s a global economic downturn on the horizon and there’s a  rash of new EV start-ups from Tesla and NIO to the 20 new Chinese brands you haven’t heard of yet. It’s what the CEO of Jaguar Land Rover, Sir Ralf Speth, described as ‘a perfect storm for automotive companies’.

Above: Ben Hampshire, Carnage Managing Director.

Into the mix let’s add the impact this year of Greta Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion and a global imperative for more sustainable and responsible behaviour from all brands. It’s enough to threaten the very roads beneath the auto giants’ fleets. 

In a sector where every car now looks like another, the safety or reliability that defined brands like Volvo and VW in the past, are now pretty much the table stakes.

Part of the reason behind automotive industry's current obsession with product focused briefs is that global auto giants need to shift stock, and these tactical campaigns are designed to do this quickly;

- The car looks great.

- It can’t be spotted by an avalanche of spy photographers before the official reveal. 

- The content can be localised easily and cut into hundreds of smaller chunks to live on content hungry channels. 

Then add soothing music, reassuring graphics and language bespoke voice-over, and it's job done. The ROI is infinitely measurable, as are the clicks and click throughs, and the risk averse are richly rewarded.

If you’re a critical observer (you work in advertising right?) the irony by now will not be lost on you.

There are hundreds of these new companies fighting for a slice of this global future. 

In a sector where every car now looks like another, and does the same as most of the others – the safety or reliability (or connectivity/tech/mpg) that defined brands like Volvo and VW in the past, are now pretty much the table stakes.

Where’s the differentiating brand work from Honda (Grrr) or Jaguar (Villains) gone? We need that now more than ever, don’t we?

Right now you could convincingly argue that brands should be investing in big brand messaging as the only differentiator bar price, to  persuade consumers toward their marque and into that complex sales funnel.