By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN
The New York Times
Published: December 12, 2010
“I’m not sure I even want to give up secrets, but how about the Cozy Inn?” Mr. Papsidera says, as the other participants — an artist, food stylist and fashion designer — trade puzzled expressions. “The Cozy Inn is in Culver City, and it’s a fantastic old-school bar. It has a shuffleboard table, a great jukebox — it’s a fantastic hidden gem.”
While it resembles conventional travel shows, the series turns out to be a vehicle for, appropriately enough, a vehicle. “Re: Discover” is underwritten by Buick, a division of General Motors, and the MSN microsite (rediscover.msn.com/) makes clear that it is “presented by Buick,” as does an opening credit for each video.
Produced by FremantleMedia, which also produces television shows including “American Idol” and “America’s Got Talent,” episodes from the new series about Chicago, Miami and New York were uploaded on Dec. 7. During the next six months, an additional eight cities will be featured, with all 12 destinations being the subject of five episodes that are about four minutes long.
The series features what it calls insiders, often designers, chefs, musicians, journalists and community organizers. Some New York episodes, for example, feature Karen Washington, a community activist who has been instrumental in the urban farming effort to turn empty lots into community gardens.
Buick models, particularly the Regal, appear only incidentally in the videos, as in product placement deals in television shows or movies. Specifically, participants drive from one establishment or attraction to another in Buicks, but never mention the brand.
“The vehicles are woven into the content, but not in such a way where you say, ‘All I see is Buick,” said John Casmon, advertising manager at Buick. “Fremantle did a phenomenal job of ensuring the cars were in the storytelling.”
Like other branded entertainment projects, rather than highlighting, say, ample legroom, the series is aiming for something more subtle: instilling in viewers an affinity for Buick.
“Buick is enabling the entire experience, and you don’t need to force Buicks into the videos,” said Russ Axelrod, senior brand strategist for the branded entertainment group within Microsoft Advertising. “If I’m a consumer coming to the site, the underlying message is that Buick gets me, that they understand what I like on a content basis, and if they understand what I like on a content basis maybe they’ll understand me on a vehicle basis.”
While the sales pitch is not explicit in the travel videos, it is elsewhere on the microsite, which features television ads for Buick, by the Detroit office of Leo Burnett, part of the Publicis Groupe.
“It’s time to take a different look at luxury,” says a voiceover in one ad. “It’s not luxury the way it was. It’s luxury the way it should be.”
It is no coincidence that the brand is, through the series, encouraging a fresh look at cities at the same time its ads encourage a fresh look at its cars.
“Buick is sort of trying to reinvent itself in the eyes of the consumer,” said Mr. Axelrod. “All the cities profiled have been around for more than 100 years, just like Buick has been around a long time, too. Cities are reinvigorating themselves and being discovered in a new way, whether it’s Miami or L.A. or New York, and that’s what Buick is trying to get across as well.”
MSN, among the most popular sites on the Internet, drew 124.7 million unique users in October, according to comScore.
Buick, which declined to say how much it is spending on “Re: Discover,” spent $179.5 million on advertising in 2009, compared with $99.2 million in 2008, an increase of 81 percent, according to the Kantar Media unit of WPP. Over that time Buick increased spending on Internet advertising even more strikingly, to $16.4 million from $6.6 million, an increase of 148 percent.
While General Motors is encouraging domestic travel in the series, the economic downturn has been no vacation for the automaker, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009 and borrowed $49.5 billion from the federal government. G.M. discontinued three brands — Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer — and sold a fourth, Saab, to a Dutch company.
This year, though, has been better, with G.M. out of bankruptcy and earning $2 billion for the third quarter, its largest quarterly profit in 11 years. Buick has been the company’s fastest growing brand, with year-to-date sales through November of 11,725 vehicles, which represents a 54 percent increase over the first 11 months of 2009, according to the company.
One city absent from the 12 featured in the travel series is the one where Buick has its headquarters: Detroit.
“We talked about Detroit, and we love Detroit, but it’s not in the original batch of cities because we do quite well there as it is,” said Mr. Casmon of Buick. “Los Angeles, Miami, New York — in some of those markets we don’t have as strong a position, and we’re hoping to reintroduce the Buick brand to that audience, especially those who drive imports who are not familiar with Buick right now.”
