Marketing

Acura faces headwinds on multiple fronts as it tries to drum up interest in its new TLX sedan, which hits dealers Monday.  The luxury segment the car competes in remains mired in a pandemic-induced sales slump. And sedans continue to lose ground to SUVs and crossovers as buyers gravitate to higher-riding vehicles.  But those forces

ATLANTA — Porsche Cars North America is expanding adjacent to its headquarters in metro Atlanta. The sports car maker will begin construction of a service center and a classic factory restoration center next to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The 33-acre “multimillion-dollar development” will also be used to expand the Porsche Experience Center performance track, the

Three years ago, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Chief Marketing Officer Olivier Francois approached Carl Sagan’s widow, Ann Druyan, with an idea: Would it be OK if the brand used her husband’s famous “Pale Blue Dot” passage in a Jeep ad? It was, on the face of it, an outlandish pitch. Sagan’s words, which described a picture

There’s a series of a dozen children’s books called Who Would Win? in which the author explains what would happen if two animals faced each other in a hypothetical battle to the death. Among the matchups are “Hammerhead vs. Bull Shark,” “Green Ants vs. Army Ants” and “Wolverine vs. Tasmanian Devil.” Now Ford Motor Co.

Three years ago, Fiat Chrysler Chief Marketing Officer Olivier Francois approached Carl Sagan’s widow, Ann Druyan, with an idea: Would it be OK if the brand used her husband’s famous “Pale Blue Dot” passage in a Jeep ad? It was, on the face of it, an outlandish pitch. Sagan’s words, which describe a picture of Earth

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. and advertising firm Dentsu Group Inc. and have agreed to form a business alliance and establish two companies to improve Toyota’s communications and digital transformation strategy, Dentsu said in a statement Wednesday. Both the firms will operate under a holding company, of which Toyota will own 66 percent and Dentsu

LOS ANGELES — Mazda North America is promoting the head of its captive ad agency, Brad Audet, to chief marketing officer effective immediately. Audet, leader of Garage Team Mazda since 2013, was interim CMO since March, when Dino Bernacchi left the post. Audet “has successfully guided our marketing operations during this time of unprecedented uncertainty

Patience does not appear to be a strong suit of Igor Krezic. The Bosnian man was so eager to get behind the wheel of a Tesla Cybertruck that he had his company build him one out of a Ford F-150 Raptor. The company, Stark Solutions, spent eight months disassembling the Raptor and transforming it into

Automakers are ready to take the field for one of the most uncertain National Football League seasons ever. In normal times, the biggest question mark for the NFL, which kicks off Thursday, Sept. 10, would be about who’s going to take home the Vince Lombardi Trophy in February. But the coronavirus pandemic threatens to disrupt

‘There’s only one Bob ROOOHHHRRR-man!’ The Bob Rohrman Auto Group has used that familiar tag line for decades in its ubiquitous TV commercials in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Rohrman, who died last week at age 87, appeared as dozens of wacky characters in his ads, from painter Bob Ross and actress “Roberta Rohrmanspoon” to his

The Los Angeles International Auto Show scheduled for November will be postponed by six months because of the coronavirus, setting up a calendar packed with major U.S. auto shows next spring. The L.A. event, which had been scheduled to run Nov. 20-29, will now take place May 21-31, 2021, according to three people familiar with

When the Ford Bronco disappeared in 1996, so did the legendary pitchman it was named after, John Bronco. The Bronco is headed back to dealerships soon, but John Bronco is still missing. That’s the — completely fictional, of course — story behind an upcoming mockumentary starring Walton Goggins as a rodeo-riding, road-racing sex symbol. John

Cadillac is getting its ducks in a row as it prepares to create a fully electric lineup within the next decade. The Lyriq, a midsize crossover unveiled this month, features a return of the ducks that the brand dropped from its logo 20 years ago. The ducks — officially, they’re merlettes — appear on the

DETROIT — No auto show? No problem. The coronavirus pandemic is prohibiting consumers from getting an in-person look at Ford Motor Co.’s newest vehicles through elaborate show displays, so the automaker decided to take one product directly to their homes. Ford on Thursday announced an augmented reality feature called “driveway dealership.” It allows users to

Brian Murphy’s 2007 Nissan Frontier will live out its retirement at the Tennessee plant where it was made 13 years ago. The Illinois man, who works as a delivery driver, swapped out his trusty pickup for one of the first 2020 Frontiers last week. Nissan gave Murphy the new truck so it could memorialize his

Audi last week apologized for a social media ad that some critics called too provocative and others said showed a young girl in danger. The ad showed the girl leaning against the grille of an RS4 station wagon. The caption: “Lets your heart beat faster — in every aspect.” After complaints poured in, Audi removed

Penske Automotive Group Inc. confirmed a longtime top marketing executive resigned last week, and the public dealership group has promoted a nine-year company veteran to fill the position. Terri Mulcahey, Penske’s executive vice president of marketing and business development, resigned for personal reasons effective July 31, Penske spokesman Anthony Pordon said. The second-largest U.S. new-vehicle

Jeep‘s Groundhog Day spoof with actor Bill Murray is one of two Super Bowl commercials to be nominated for the 2020 Emmy Awards. The one-minute Jeep spot, which topped the USA Today Admeter rankings, is up against Amazon’s “Before Alexa” ad from Super Bowl LIV as well as ads from Apple, Procter & Gamble and

“She’s pretty and petite … a compulsive perfectionist. She’s about to have a migraine!” Believe it or not, that’s a direct line from a 1977 advertisement put out by Parke-Davis, the pharmaceutical company. It appeared in a brochure for ergotamine tartrate tablets. At the time it was apparently OK to say that a combination of

“She’s pretty and petite … a compulsive perfectionist. She’s about to have a migraine!” Believe it or not, that’s a direct line from a 1977 advertisement put out by Parke-Davis, the pharmaceutical company. It appeared in a brochure for ergotamine tartrate tablets. At the time it was apparently OK to say that a combination of

Silvercar serves with a “community heart.” That’s what the president of Services of Hope, Daniel Prescott, said when Silvercar by Audi, the brand’s premium rental car company, donated the use of fleet cars to the Texas nonprofit. The free rentals helped the organization make food deliveries and feed more than 500 people daily from the

When Hyundai Motor America and the National Salute to America’s Heroes had to cancel their 2020 Air and Sea Show in Miami Beach, Fla., because of coronavirus concerns, they didn’t let it stop them from giving back. Instead, they hosted a giveaway called the Salute 365 initiative for “local healthcare professionals, first responders and others.”

Porsche enlisted the services of an icon to help bring relief to the millions of Americans affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Porsche Cars North America hatched a plan to auction a 911 sports car to raise funds for COVID-19 relief efforts. But not just any 911. In April, the automaker auctioned the final 991-generation car

As the economy works to return to a semblance of normalcy, strategic planners will be expected to better target vehicle content to meet specific consumer demands more efficiently. This will be critical to addressing consumer affordability and industry profitability in the new normal. To maintain sales volumes, the industry has traditionally created hundreds of combinations

President Donald Trump spoke in front of a pair of Chevrolet Silverado HD pickups on the White House lawn last week as a crane demonstrated the “regulatory weights” he said his administration has lifted off businesses. “We weren’t aware of the event beforehand,” a General Motors spokesperson told Jalopnik, “but looks like they chose a

When actor Dax Shepard tells the audience of his popular podcast that they should buy a Chrysler Pacifica, they tend to listen more than people who just see an ad for the minivan on TV or in a newspaper. That’s why Chrysler has sponsored more than 30 episodes of “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard,” which

The merged unit of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group will be known as Stellantis, the two automakers said Wednesday. The automakers said the name “will be used exclusively at the group level, as a corporate brand” and that the names and the logos of the group’s constituent brands will remain unchanged. The companies said

In early March, the team at Outsell held an off-site, multiday meeting to create the dealership marketing company’s long-term product development road map. There were plans for a new content management system, more product integrations and new reporting tools. But within weeks, the situation changed. The pandemic prompted states across most of the country to

The coronavirus-induced digital transformation of auto retailers has been helped along by some behind-the-scenes work from vendors. The pandemic is spurring companies that build the software that powers dealerships’ online business to accelerate their own capabilities. Some retail tech vendors shuffled product plans to prioritize new tools based on what dealerships said they needed for

Ford Motor Co.’s top executive has pushed back against some employees calling for the top seller of vehicles to U.S. police departments to exit the business. CEO Jim Hackett sent a more than 600-word letter to senior staff in response to messages he’s received both from within and outside Ford’s ranks to reconsider producing police