A scene from the new Ram 1500 ad campaign.
Chrysler’s Ram truck brand hopes to pry free normally loyal Ford and Chevrolet pickup buyers with a cinematic new ad campaign marking the launch of the newly updated Ram 1500 truck. Perhaps appropriately, the spots have been dubbed “Heaven and Earth,” suggesting the lengths Ram will go to in a bid to win over new buyers.
The campaign, which features the gravelly voice of Western actor Sam Elliott, will make its debut this coming weekend and marks the continuing ramp-up in spending by Chrysler’s truck brand – which was spun off from Dodge three years ago.
The multimedia campaign will also spotlight the rapidly expanding Hispanic community which accounts for a disproportionate share of pickup purchases in the U.S. market, officials noted. The campaign will feature singer Juanes, a 17-time Latin Grammy winner.
“With this truck launch we literally swing for the fences,” said Fred Diaz, the head of the Ram division as well as president of Chrysler’s Mexican operations.
Singer and social activist Juanes will star in the new Hispanic ads for the Ram 1500.
The Ram name has been around for decades but was traditional used as a nameplate for the truck side of better-known Dodge. In 2009, following Chrysler’s emergence from Chapter 11, Ram was spun off as a brand in itself, the goal to avoid the “confusion” of trying to send two very different messages to Dodge consumers, noted Olivier Francois.
The global marketing chief for the smallest of the Detroit makers, he said while there are some similarities, it was difficult to talk to the NASCAR crowd that appreciated Dodge’s in-your-face muscle car mentality while also pitching to the pickup crowd.
The challenge, however, has been to build up a clear brand identity to an all-new marque trying to compete with well-established competitors like Ford, with its best-selling F-150, and Chevrolet, with the Silverado.
Bringing on actor Elliott has clearly helped, but so has Ram’s increased focus on the Hispanic community, the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population. Significantly, after launching an initial Latino campaign in September 2011, Ram saw its share of the light-duty pickup market surge 1.7 points to 17% in test markets.
More broadly, Ram has seen its overall share of the light and heavy pickup segment jump from 14.6% to 18.4% for the first nine months of 2012.
A key to maintaining that growth will be building public awareness of the new 2013 Ram 1500.
“What started out as a minor freshening,” noted Diaz, “turned into a major overhaul” that saw the full-size pickup get a number of new features including an air suspension, and an updated powertrain line-up including a Hemi V-6 mated to an all-new 8-speed automatic transmission that yields a segment-best 25 mpg on the highway.
Diaz, who grew up in a traditional Hispanic community in San Antonio, Texas, said he sees a lot of opportunities to win over buyers whatever their ethnic background. The increased features and fuel economy should help, he suggested, as will the Ram 1500’s rising residual values – now a segment-best 49% for the chassis cab model.
It also helps that the new truck is launching during something of a lull for both Ford and GM, the latter not planning to bring out replacements for both the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra for another year.
Marketing chief Francois, who won major kudos for his two Chrysler corporate Super Bowl spots – one featuring rapper Eminem, the other actor Clint Eastwood – has very different views on automotive marketing than the typical American auto exec. No surprise, as he refers to himself as “a French guy working for an Italian company (Chrysler parent Fiat) in Detroit. There’s a culture shock when you are marketing a product like a truck.”
His approach, however, has been to focus on the purest parts of the American mythos, using Elliott to narrate a series of commercials largely anchored in the Old West.
The new campaign makes extensive use of CGI in the mainstream spots as mountains literally collapse to allow the new Ram 1500 to pass through. The Hispanic ads, featuring Juanes will take a more personal approach.
That reflects a decision to not simply dub English-language spots into Spanish, explained Diaz. “We have to be very committed and discipline,” he warned, or Hispanic buyers “will see right through us.”