Chrysler - Fiat's Oliver Francois at Detroit Automotive Press Association

Olivier Francois, chief marketing officer for Chrysler and Fiat Groups (Photo by Bob Benko)

By Steve Purdy
TheAutoChannel.com
Michigan Bureau

DETROIT - March 15, 2012; The man behind those attention-getting Chrysler and Fiat ads we’ve seen the last couple of years on the Web and TV, including two dramatic Super Bowl ads, spoke to the assembled media at the Detroit Automotive Press Association on Tuesday bringing some insight into the company’s approach to marketing and advertising.

Olivier Francois, chief marketing officer for Chrysler and Fiat Groups and manager of Fiat brands worldwide (all the big execs at Chrysler and Fiat have two jobs these days) said there is no magic or genius involved insisting he just follows his instinct and works without many preconceived notions. He is not a fan of focus groups and he is willing to take big gambles.

When arriving in Detroit, he revealed, he was struck by car and truck ads talking about mundane features and interest rates. He said his objective was to “sell cars through a brand not selling a brand through its cars.” So his advertising messages became rather unconventional.

Without specifying where the seeds of the messages were found Francois talked about the creativity released by passing ideas back and forth from the agency people to the corporate people. Upon taking over the marketing job at Chrysler one of his first moves was to go with many ad agencies instead of one - a reflection of the Fiat ad philosophy that resulted in engaging one agency for each of the Fiat brands. Now there are multiple agencies working with each of the Chrysler brands.

One of his early successes was an ad they had used for Fiat then reworked for Chrysler featuring Nobel laureates calling for the release from house arrest of Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi. The ad was done in support of an event Fiat and Chrysler had sponsored for Nobel Laureates. It cost nothing for the talent and made a huge impact in brand identity he said.

An early success, at least in terms of buzz, was the 2011 Super Bowl ad featuring Detroit rapper Eminem touting the new Chrysler 200 and insisting that “This is the motor city and this is what we do.” Francois didn’t realize that Eminem typically would not do commercials and that two-minute ads were unheard of. The dramatic ad showed realistic images of Detroit, both dismal and beautiful, and it generated perhaps a greater buzz than any Super Bowl car ad to that time. Along with the newly minted Chrysler 200 the tag line “Imported from Detroit” made a huge splash. But Francois makes no claims of genius about approving the ad. “Maybe it was just my lucky day,” he modestly speculated. After that ad ran during the Super Bowl the Chrysler 200 experienced a 267% increase in brand consideration, he claimed.

A year later he and his team were able to top that ad.

The handsome young Frenchman describes sitting around this year’s Super Bowl party with Sergio Marchonne and a roomful of folks from within the company and without. Many of the guests were not paying much attention to the game but when this two-minute half-time Chrysler ad came on featuring the intense and grizzled actor and director Clint Eastwood, talking softly using boxing and sports metaphors about this being “halftime in Detroit,” a hush ensued and people began to pay attention. The message about the resilience of the downtrodden and the value of hard work grabbed the attention of the audience.

The Eastwood ad had even greater legs. Immediately after the Super Bowl, political pundits on the far right began criticizing it as an attempt to justify the Democratic administration’s decision to bail out General Motors and Chrysler with taxpayer dollars. The Republican primary was in full swing and this seemed an opportunity to bash the opposition. Francois did not expound on that criticism other than to insist that no political message was intended.

Francois said that timing is as important as content sometimes. And you can’t always predict the timing. But, though they have no political intent in their advertising “a company must stand for something,” he said, “ and a company must have soul.”

Tag lines like “the hottest fires make the hardest steel,” and “this is the motor city and this is what we do,” and themes about Detroit being “no place for wimps,” and “US ingenuity” are not about the individual vehicles but about brand identity. Francois said the vehicle-specific ads are coming.

Much criticism has come from the dealers, many of whom do not see the value of these brand identity ads. They would rather see the ad dollars spent on specific vehicle marketing messages that will bring customers into their stores to buy cars.

How effective are these ads? Do they actually sell cars in the long run?

If by effective we mean increasing brand recognition, we would have to say they’ve been quite effective. Francois said, for example, that after the famous Fiat 500 ad featuring Jennifer Lopez brand awareness went from 9% to 30%.

The newest ad posted on the Web in February of 2012 features a Fiat 500 Abarth (performance model) streaking through a mansion’s halls with beautiful women lining the way. The Abarth finally comes to a sliding stop and actor Charlie Sheen steps out saying something about being under house arrest not being so bad. The tag line – “Not all bad boys are created equal.”

Using the ultra-famous – be they Nobel laureates or pop culture icons – gets attention and makes the brand memorable. The Sheen ad has already made a big splash on the Web and will lunch on TV this week.

When asked about a marketing plan for the new Dodge Dart, he declined to answer. He acknowledged, though, that because Dodge vehicles include enthusiast cars and people movers make it difficult to market the brand.

Francois also declined to discuss plans for bringing the Alfa Romeo brand to the U.S.

Olivier Francois reminds us he is a French guy working for an Italian company in Detroit. Not an easy task. But he seems to be doing an admirable job.