Cadillac Turns To “Life, Liberty and Pursuit”
New ads displace Zeppelin from the airwaves.
by
TCC Team 
(2006-07-26) document.write('');
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google_ad_client = "pub-4956733744046268"; google_ad_width = 300; google_ad_height = 250; google_ad_format = "300x250_as"; google_ad_type = "text_image"; google_ad_channel ="articlesquare"; google_color_border = "000000"; google_color_bg = "FFFFFF"; google_color_link = "5F86C1"; google_color_url = "993366"; google_color_text = "000000"; Starting in August, Cadillac will begin a brand retrenching operation that scraps its four-year old "Break Through" ad campaign featuring Led Zeppelin rock music in favor of a new positioning centered on the theme, "Life,
Liberty and the Pursuit." The campaign, which will include such untraditional media as urban wildpostings and videogames, is meant to reach consumers under 35 and women better than the GM premium brand had been doing.
Cadillac has been hailed the last four years as arguably General Motors' best brand turnaround, a model on which plans for Buick, Pontiac, Saab, and even Chevy
cars is based. But with sales down this year and a stubborn gap between Caddy's much improved product and the way many customers still view Cadillac, the company has shaken up its operations by appointing former HUMMER and Volkswagen ad director Liz Vanzura as global marketing director and hiring HUMMER agency Modernista! of Boston to replace Leo Burnett as Caddy's ad agency of record.
The new tagline, pulled right from the Declaration of Independence, says Vanzura, is meant to capture "an American spirit we have in our heritage, and the brand, but without flag-waving." The line was chosen after some 25-plus new taglines were aired in front of focus groups for reaction.
The target customers of Cadillac going forward are internally called, "Perpetual Strivers." That's really a mindset we are after across different age groups," says Modernista! executive creative director Lance Jensen. Cadillac further broke down the audience it's talking to along these lines: "Alpha Males," who come into a dealership already knowing more about performance and the hardware than the dealer; "Hot Moms," who are career women with family-care responsibilities, and independent when it comes to choosing their
car without necessarily checking with her husband; and "Move Ups," who are car-buyers under the age of 35 who are already in the income range to afford a Cadillac.
Print ads are bold and light on ad copy. The most distinguished feature is the word Cadillac written in the brand's traditional script in huge letters across the front of the ad. The ads capture attractive people (they look like models) seated in Cadillacs. The picture is framed in such a way as to suggest that we are looking at a frame from a strip of 35mm film. "It's to give the ad a paparazzi feel," says Jensen. There is a new emphasis in the ads on showing the kinds of people Caddy says are ripe for the brand but who are not shopping it. "We simply found that a lot of people weren't seeing themselves in the brand," says Vanzura. The print ads are similar to outdoor ads that will run in major markets.
Other print ads show Caddy models in profile with product details like horsepower. One ad for the DTS has accompanying ad copy: "Caddy Rhymes With Daddy." A similar ad for the Escalade says, "Even The Windshield Washer Fluid is Hot."
Jensen says that he sees a lot of potential for Cadillac with customers who either have never owned a luxury car, under 40, and those who have owned European brands in the past. Indeed, on ad carries this ad copy for the STS, "Denounce the Euro-car religion." Cadillac's research shows an opportunity among people who feel that BMW and Lexus have become too ubiquitous and common. "Bimmers are a dime a dozen," said one woman in a focus group tape Cadillac shared with reporters Wednesday. In a "brand essence" tape produced by Modernista!, the direction of the brand going forward was depicted as going from one associated with actor Jerry Stiller to one identified with George Clooney.
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Cadillac and Modernista! say they plan to play up the Cadillac crest and wreath logo more than in the past. In some print ads, for example, an oversized crest-and-wreath is shown against a modern bridge with just the tagline and Cadillac.com. In another, the wreath-and-crest is shown above an arty rendering of people walking between two passenger trains with a modern building - the GM Renaissance Center - in the background. TV ads will not close with the tagline, but the traditional logo. "Cadillac is an iconic brand, and we need to start acting like one," says Vanzura, who says she aspires to convey status on the Cadillac logo that is similar to the logos of Apple, Rolex, and Nike.
TV ads that begin breaking in August include one in which a jeweler is depicted pouring molten metals into molds and choosing jewels. It's revealed at the end that he is making a Cadillac crest-and-wreath. In another TV spot, an engineer is seen taking a load of engine parts to assemble by hand, which is actually the way engines for some Caddy models are put together. "The point is to bring out hidden gems about the products," says Jensen.
Cadillac brand chief Jim Taylor acknowledges that the company's shift to alphanumeric names like CTS, STS, DTS, XLR, and SRX has left some potential customers a little confused about the Cadillac brand. Sales through the first six months of this year were down nine percent, with sales of the CTS, STS and XLR off by double digits. "The Break Through campaign got us attention when we were coming out with a lot of new product, the best we have ever had, but we need to take this to the next level."
