Description of campaign

Chevy entered a sponsorship of “The Apprentice,” a TV show with an audience believed to closely match Chevy's target market. In addition to the Tahoe being the focus of an entire episode, the sponsorship also allowed Chevy to air spots that encouraged the audience to visit Chevyapprentice.com. There, consumers could create their own ads by using the website's pre-created video clips, music, and editing tools.

Was the strategy effective?

Because Chevy only allowed consumers to create ads by working with a template, the submissions were, not surprisingly, bland and generic.

A bigger problem for the campaign, however, emerged when consumers started submitting attack ads which knocked the SUV for being environmentally unfriendly. Many of these ads are still floating around on You Tube.

Analysis

The emergence of the attack ads created a sticky public-relations situation for the company. Do they immediately delete any negative ads and risk looking hypocritical and “corporate” in the eyes of the very consumers they are trying to reach with CGA? Or, do they allow the negative ads to stay, even though doing so could be extremely damaging to the brand's reputation? With the belief that maintaining credibility should be the number-one priority in any CGA campaign, the company ultimately decided on the latter.

When CGA naysayers discuss the down side of the advertising format, they often cite Chevy Tahoe campaign as a prime example. Yet despite the uninspiring ads and tricky PR situation, the numbers say the Tahoe campaign should be considered another CGA success. The CGA website attracted over half a million viewers, and two-thirds of these viewers ended up visiting the parent Chevy.com website – more funneling than took place from either Yahoo or Google in the same period. What's more, Tahoe sales increased significantly. The new model, introduced in January 2006 (two months before the campaign began), accounted for over one-forth of all full-sized SUV sales in 2006. Before the campaign, Tahoes were staying in dealers' lots for an average of nearly four months. After the campaign, the Tahoes moved from lots in just 46 days. (Bosman, 2006)

It is apparent from looking at these two campaigns that the nature of CGA varies greatly from case to case. Factors such as the degree of control the host brand takes over the creative format, the reputation of the brand, the type of product, and the awards offered all influence the way the “end product” will look. However the Chevy Tahoe campaign has shown us that, at least in the present moment, a bad looking CGA campaign can still provide positive results for the host brand.

In order to make predictions about the future of any advertising format, it is necessary to understand the underlying motivations of the people who ultimately control its fate. In the case of CGA, the major “players” are consumers, advertising creatives and corporate big wigs. The following sections discuss how each of these players feels about CGA, and what each stands to gain/lose from it widening/shrinking.