This morning at 9:30AM PST I heard my first Smart EV radio advertisement. It was on KCBS AM, who's 50kW reaches way beyond the SF area http://www.fccinfo.com/CMDProEngine.php?sCurrentService=AM&tabSearchType=Appl&sAppIDNumber=163566&sHours=D When I would handle hp customer calls in my northern California territory, I could almost always hear that station from south of Santa Rosa, all the way down south of Monterey, and in the central valley to just north of Fresno all the way up to just north of the Sacramento area. That is quite a huge listening audience capability.
In the past, just before Production EVs were offered again (circa ~2010), there were many newswires a buzz with 'Who would want and buy an EV?' A kin to the profiling newswire I posted http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Early-EV-adopter-profiling-td4663122.html EVLN: Early EV adopter profiling It was quite obvious those were part of the bought-n-paid for smear/anti-EV campaign which persists even today. It infers that men (real men) would not want anything to do with an EV. Later when Production plugins were available to be sold, it was mentioned that a portion of a community were being targeted for marketing: the African-American buyers. Then female drivers/buyers, and later again with the repeated pieces of how real men have not drive Electric since the 1900's. And lately, an EV concept-model was being tuned to market to the young Asian crowd. I mention those marketing demographics not to have detail discussions on non-EV topics, but to note them for archival purposes as of historical value. The same when I mention some more below. Very few but old-timers will remember the Smart started out as part of a swatch effort (different colored/styled watches and bands that were interchangeable to suit your mood). A "Swatchmobile" if you will http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_%28automobile%29#Origins But if you ask anyone today, they do not know do not know of Smart's history. Since over in the states the Smart ice was sold first, that is what people with think of first, the ice version and its cool factor. That Smart EV radio advertisement seemed to be written to target a specific market demographic. The station's marketing department will advertise to what the community is comprised of. In this case, the San Francisco Bay area, where the LGBT community is a significant portion of that market. Interestingly enough, the selling points of that Smart EV ad were not like the Leaf. They were much less about not having deal the with the headaches of an ice (less technical bits mentioned), and more about how colorful (said with passion) they were, and driving one you would no longer feel ordinary because now you are cool, ... plus some silly points usually added to make you remember the commercial (teach your cat to walk a tight rope). The voice of the announcer was not spoken in a straight way like on the Leaf ads. His speaking style/tone was like he was selling to the LGBT community. IMO if it translates into more EVs on the road, I am for it. It was an interesting spin on getting the word out. I will be good to know how well those ads are remembered and what impact they had (i.e.: are there more plugins on the road?). ... Anyone heard on the radio or seen on TV any other plugin advertising? iMiev, Fit-EV, RAV4-EV, +more? (Again asking that we stay on topic: plugin advertising.) {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/Plugin-advertising-experienced-tp4661653p4663145.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
