Lessons from Chevy’s “Make Your Own Tahoe Commercial”

Lot's of digital ink has floated around Chevy Tahoe's Consumer Generated Media Campaign. We've been blogging about it before and in this post we pointed at a lively debate on at Jaffe's blog and at McConnell & Huba's blog. Now that the storm has ended, my perspective has been changed. In the beginning of the campaign I gave a lot of credit for the authenticity and the guts for allowing the anti-tahoe ads. Now I'm more and more convinced that - although they need credits for trying out CGM-campaigning - the whole setup was stupid. The first reason is that they should have been focussing at the Chevy loyals, not just everybody. This might work with a brand like Converse, but it's social suicide with a brand within a controversial category like SUV's.

I found two articles that come to the same conclusion. In the first article Carol Davies pleads for a CGM-marketing aproach in which the brand loyals are targeted. They should be invited to tell their true story and these stories should be build back into the brand. In the second article, clickz.com columnist Gary Stein thinks that since the point of advertising is all about placing an idea in the consumer's mind that generates value for the company, the Chevy Tahoe campaign managed to accomplish the exact opposite. That's why one needs to have a very clear strategic vision about what the potential outcomes of the CGM-campaign will be.

Links: Learning from Chevy’s “Make Your Own Tahoe Commercial”. (Tanx: Hendrik Mertens)
Links: CGM as an advertising tactic