Honda to Advertise Fuel-Efficiency During Super Bowl
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 01.19.07
The Super Bowl is just a couple of weeks away, and for the second consecutive year, advertisers will take advantage of the huge audience to push their green cred. Honda has announced that it will air three ads during the mega-broadcast, one of which will highlight Honda's fuel-efficiency leadership (they have the highest fleet-wide fuel economy of any major automaker, after all). Last year's big game, watched last year by 141.4 million people, saw Kermit the Frog shill for the Ford Escape Hybrid and Toyota pitch its Camry Hybrid to the tune of $2.5 million for a 30-second spot. "The Super Bowl remains one of the best opportunities to reach a wide television audience in one shot," said John Mendel, senior vice president of American Honda. "Many Super Bowl viewers look forward to the commercials almost as much as the game, and Honda has taken this great opportunity to highlight a couple of its key brand values through fun and creative ads." We'll have to wait until the fourth quarter of the game to see if their 30 seconds in the spotlight will help them sell hybrid cars to the football-watching audience. ::PR Newswire via ::AutoblogGreen
Kermit backed out of the Ford campaign:
http://ran.org/media_center/news_article/?uid=2231
My Honda Civic Hybrid gets 52.9 MPG
http://www.greenhybrid.com/compare/mileage/car/1575.html
Let's hope it's a close game and people are still tuned in during the 4th Quarter.
Green marketers have been targeting hipsters and young people for years, but they should also explore another demographic area, Cheap Adults, particularly Cheap Dads. Cheap Dads are obsessive, ritualistic, love to add up numbers and keep scores, are stoic and inured to their own discomfort (and the complaints of their bratty kids) if it means they can save money.
This may not be the year to target cheap dads, however, because of the mild winter and the plummeting price of fuel.
The Super Bowl is a great way to reach them, however. Someone should also advertise those thermostats with the dollars-and-cents readout. The kids will HATE that...