Valeo's Men in Black Capture the Gold for Blind Spot Safety Promotion

PARIS, February 18 -- At the Top Com annual awards ceremony earlier this month in Paris, automotive supplier Valeo accepted a Gold award for its creative promotional concept based on "Men in Black" to increase awareness of the dangers of the blind spot zone on cars. Valeo won the Grand Prix award in the Business to Business promotion category in the marketing section.

Top Com, an annual French media congress, presented the Gold award to Valeo's media relations, marketing communication and event teams and to Alan Le Breton, business development manager of Event & Vente, a Paris-based events agency specializing in comedy campaigns.

The Grand Prix awards honor campaigns that have excelled on a number of criteria, including the complexity of the subject, creativity and originality and above all its results.

An independent jury of more than 35 advertising and communications experts evaluated over 2,500 entries for the 2004 Top Com awards. At the presentation, the jury highlighted the creativity behind Valeo's blind spot detection campaign. "The subject is very complex," said Françoise Sampermans, a member of the jury, "but you managed to make it easy to understand through the Men in Black act, which also employs humor."

Valeo worked with Event & Vente to generate a promotional event that would make carmakers aware of Valeo's technology to eliminate the dangerous blind spot in cars. Valeo had developed its radar-based blind spot detection systems with Raytheon, and wanted to present it with panache at the Frankfurt motor show in September last year.

The award-winning event is inspired by the film "Men in Black." The two characters are a "Man in Black" who is out to destroy an attractive female alien with green hair, green make up and a green miniskirt that echo Valeo's corporate colors. The Man is warning the audience that the blind spot is dangerous because you cannot see it when the alien suddenly appears and runs wildly around the stage. The demonstration ends on a moral note that the danger zone of the blind spot must be detected at all times, and at this point the show is handed over to the technical experts to demonstrate the technology. The scene was shown to Valeo's customers and international journalists.

"What we call scenario marketing consists in making a message human to create an emotional bond with the public," commented Alan Le Breton, business development manager at Event & Vente. By using cultural references like the film "Men in Black" to develop the scenario, he said, the audience finds a familiar link, and the comedian is a human connection that makes the brand more accessible. He added, "This Top Com award is very encouraging as it confirms that an advertiser like Valeo, whose image is based on precision and professionalism, can use scenario marketing without departing from its communications policy."

The Valeo system uses one radar sensor on each side of the vehicle to continuously monitor the blind spot. If an overtaking vehicle appears in the monitored area, an icon in the door mirror alerts the driver. In 2002, more than one accident in ten on German roads was due to driver errors in overtaking, changing direction, moving off or joining a stream of traffic, so blind spot detection could ultimately lead to a drop in the number of accidents.

The Men in Black act appeared on several key German television programs that covered the motor show, and more than 100 hundred articles on the blind spot detection system appeared in print media, including the leading German publications FAZ and Wirtschaftswoche.

Valeo is an independent industrial group fully focused on the design, production and sale of components, integrated systems and modules for cars and trucks. Valeo ranks among the world's top automotive suppliers. The Group has 129 plants, 65 R&D centers, 9 distribution centers and employs 68,200 people in 26 countries worldwide.

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Media contact: Malene Pickles, Corporate press and public relations manager, Tel: +33 140 55 2074, Email: malene.pickles@valeo.com