Elusive Gen Y demands edgier marketing
Automakers use Web, films, events to entice youth

Actress Mischa Barton's character on the Fox TV show

STAR CARS

These are examples of vehicle product placement in TV shows that appeal to young consumers.

The Buick LaCrosse and Rendezvous have appeared on ABC’s “Desperate Housewives.”

Ford sponsored a commercial-free episode of NBC’s “American Dreams” last November. A 3-minute video featuring the Mustang ran at the end of the show.

The Ford Mustang has appeared in segments of Fox’s “American Idol” and “The O.C.” and ABC’s “Alias” and “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

Episodes last season of HBO’s “The Sopranos” featured the Nissan Xterra and Maserati Coupe.

Pontiac vehicles have appeared on the reality series “Survivor” on CBS and “The Apprentice” on NBC.

Getting through to the powerful and elusive Generation Y is crucial to automotive marketers. To reach the 63 million Americans born between 1980 and 1994, car companies are relying less on traditional media advertising and more on event marketing, product placement and digital media.

By 2010, Generation Y will buy one of every four new cars and trucks sold in the United States, say executives of Scion, the youth brand of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. By 2020, Scion says, that share will rise to 40 percent.

"A lot of companies recognize that," says Dawn Ahmed, Scion's national marketing communications manager.

As they chase Generation Y, automakers say their advertising plans include less mainstream media.

Ford Division will spend less than 80 percent of its marketing dollars this year on traditional TV and print advertising, says spokesman Miles Johnson. Ten years ago, he adds, that figure was 98 percent.

Ford is spending more on so-called customer-relationship marketing. That includes Internet promotions; integration of Ford vehicles in TV shows, movies and video games; and sponsorship of sports and music events, Johnson says.

Many of these efforts by automakers are aimed at young consumers. American Honda Motor Co. Inc. is sponsoring a tour this year by alternative rock band Maroon 5.

Toyota's new marketing deal with the National Basketball Association includes special advertising and marketing rights. They include signs during games and the use of the NBA logo in Toyota promotional efforts.

No hard sell

The key to reaching Generation Y, marketers say, is avoiding the hard sell.

Young consumers "don't like in-your-face marketing," Johnson says. "They want to find you on their own."

As a result, automakers seek TV options other than the traditional 30-second spot. Product placement is one such alternative.

The April 14 episode of the NBC reality series "The Apprentice" assigned contestants to create a launch campaign for the Pontiac Solstice roadster. Pontiac has incorporated its vehicles into stunts on the CBS series "Survivor."

"You will never see a vehicle on television by accident," says Pontiac advertising manager Mary Kubitskey. "Thirty-second TV ads just aren't working as effectively as they used to."

Ford places its vehicles in music videos shown on Fox's "American Idol." Those placements are part of a larger deal that includes Ford commercials on the show, Johnson says.

Such placements also occur on scripted series that appeal to young viewers. A central character on Fox's "The O.C." drives a new Ford Mustang.

New appetites

Some automakers simply aren't familiar with the diverse youth market, says Simon Needham, group creative director of Attik, a San Francisco ad agency that has the Scion account.

Needham cites a youth-oriented magazine, Yellow Rat Bastard, in which he sought to run Scion ads. "Imagine trying to explain that one to the executives," Needham says.

Generation Y has a constantly changing media appetite and is easily bored, Needham says. Many young consumers have access to technology such as the TiVo personal video recorder that allows them to avoid TV commercials.

Scion's Ahmed says the growth of such technology is "something that's looming on the horizon that we need to address fairly quickly."