History of Car Advertising

 

Brief History of Car Advertising

• ·        Winton Motor Company produced the first newspaper advert for car advertising with the Main line of the Article being “Dispense with a horse”.
• ·         Early car adverts had to persuade people to swap their horse and carriage for a car, so they mainly talked about the safety and elegance of cars.
• ·        As the popularity of the automobile grew, car adverts became more vibrant with large illustrations and bold statements such as “boss of the road”.
• ·        The need to sell the idea of owning a car was gone so it was now more about showcasing what that model could do and why you should buy it.
• ·        When Henry Ford’s infamous model t debuted in 1908 it was accompanied by advertising placements in Life magazine marketing the car as the first car that is for everyone (not just for the wealthy), which was the first advertisement to do so as rival companies such as Plymouth and Packard only advertised to the wealthy. Ford marketed the car as high quality at low cost as they had mastered the art of mass production. The first model T’s sold for $850 or $20,000 in todays money.
• ·        The Model T was a huge success selling 10,000 units in its first-year production and this success was due to Ford’s marketing to the everyman. This revolutionised life at the time as now people could leave their relative areas for day trips and people from the cities could go out into the countryside.
• ·        By the 1920s people were now looking for luxury and sportiness in their cars, not just reliability.
• ·        The 1920s also saw the start of car adverts that specifically targeted women with one of Chevrolets adverts tagline being “the car for the girl in business”. The amount of car adverts primarily aimed towards women also surged during world war 2 as the men were out fighting and the labour force women primarily.
• ·        however, these adverts also showcased the sexism still prevalent at the time with one Buick Advert saying “Weep no more my lady! Here’s a big car you can drive!” with the advert further going to state the interior was big enough to “hold a tea party in”.
• ·        America saw a car boom after the war suburbs began to pop up across the cities meaning people had to commute to work from further away and would rely on cars to do so.
• ·        car advertisements in 1950s were about showcasing the cars features such as engine size, boot space, seats, radio, etc
• ·        the 1950s was also when car advertising moved onto Tv as by the 1950s a substantial number of households had TVs which now made advertising cars on them a viable choice. However, Newspaper adverts were still important for car sales in the 1950s.
• ·        it was advertisers’ goal in the 50s to link the idea of owning a car with the dream of the perfect suburban life.
• ·        By the mid-1950s cars became the most advertised product in the Uk and the US beating out Package Goods and Cigarettes.
• ·        In the 1960’s Volkswagen released their think small campaign which catapulted the German company to the forefront of car advertising. What diversified it from other adverts at the time was the simplicity of the posters and advertisements. Unlike competing ads, it didn’t feature any outlandish claims and was just honest and humorous (with adverts such as they said it couldn’t be done. It couldn’t). It didn’t talk down to consumers and it’s simplicity appealed to the changing culture at the time especially with the rebellious youth culture who tried to differentiate themselves from mass consumerism.
• ·        Soon other advertisers followed Volkswagens lead and stopped the condescending sales pitches for more playful campaigns selling individuality over conformity.
• ·         The “think small” campaign can be seen as the turning point for car advertising ass well as the gold standard which many advertisers tried to replicate in the coming decades. It helped the beetle to sell over 570,000 units in the US by the 1970s
• ·        In the late 70s 1980s things changed once again as the rise of Wall street style businessmen leading to cars becoming a status symbol. Ford began capitalising on this by releasing their models with different variants at different prices. With the more luxurious variants being named the “GT” and “GXL” (grand xtra luxury)
• ·        This led to a lot of car adverts in the 1980s becoming rather formulaic as they showcased the same things such as a quiet interior and easy handling)
• ·        The Japanese Manufacturer Izuzu tried to appeal to the US market by launching an Ad campaign that parodied the Smarmy and lying nature of car salesmen however although the Ad became hugely popular it did not lead to high sales as people were more interested in the character of Joe Izuzu than the car itself.
• ·        Celebrity indorsements for cars became more prevalent in the 1990s and early 2000s, the right endorsement could make the car a huge success but the wrong endorsement could lead to a huge loss in profits as the cost of hiring the endorser would not have caused enough sales to be worthwhile
• ·        In 2011 Volkswagen released a video for their 2011 Passat, onto YouTube. The video was intended to be shown during the US Superbowl, but they released it a week early onto YouTube as the German Division of Volkswagen who made the video thought this was the better choice. The video gained 1.8 million views within the first 12 hours and by the Night of the Superbowl game it had amassed 17 million views and before it’s removal it had amassed 66 million views. The video also held the record of most successful Superbowl add up until 2014.
• ·        The success of The Force advert by Volkswagen as well as the social media boom, has led car companies to use online viral marketing as their most prevalent form of advertising with companies now teasing cars, months, even years in advance online to gain traction and attention before the car has been released. This has led to a decline in the number of brands making and putting ads onto tv as there is no real need to anymore.
• ·        Today it is more about what the car can do to the consumers life rather than how it can help the consumer. They are appealing to the senses and emotions rather than to the logics. Therefore car adverts today showcase a lifestyle you could have with the car.