To introduce its new four-seat sports car, the Panamera, Porsche Cars North America is running an integrated effort designed to expand the company’s audience beyond sports car fans and to reach luxury car drivers.
The multichannel effort, “Welcome to the Family,” was created by Porsche’s agency of record Cramer-Krasselt Chicago with the goal of retaining existing customers and acquiring new ones. The campaign includes online advertisements, Web site takeovers, mobile, print, television, direct mail, dealer brochures and an IFC documentary about the vehicle that includes an interactive Web site.
“We wanted to reach insiders, core car owners and outsiders, new prospects,” said Michael Baer, SVP, group account director at Cramer-Krasselt Chicago. “So we decided to talk about the heritage and the DNA of the brand, which speaks to both audiences.”
All of the creative directs users to a microsite developed by Cramer-Krasselt and production agency Fantasy Interactive. The site includes an interactive family tree where visitors can share their Porsche stories and photos, take quizzes and download images of cars. The site also features behind-the-scenes videos from the commercial shoot.
The creative is focused on telling the history of Porsche. The online ads introduce the Panamera as “the product of 60 years of unwavering Porsche philosophy.” These will run across various behavioral targeting ad networks, as well as in homepage takeovers on sites including Bloomberg.com, Forbes.com and ESPN.com.
There is also a mobile WAP site for the Porsche family tree campaign. “This demographic is hugely connected to and reliant on their smart phones, so it is a no brainer place to be to reach out to them,” said Baer. “They are on the move and are hard to reach with a lot of traditional media.”
The traditional media includes one TV commercial, called “Family Tree,” which features classic footage of Porsches being driven, including car driven by actor Steve McQueen in the movie Le Mans. In addition, three-page inserts will appear in October issues of magazines such as Wired and Fast Company.
While the full campaign launched earlier this month, Porsche has conducted a lead-generation direct mail effort for the past 14 months to help build buzz among Porsche owners. The direct mail pieces have gone out to Porsche owners to drive retention among existing customers.
The car’s audience skews male. The ads are aimed at affluent consumers who make more than $150,000 a year. While Baer said that there are challenges in this marketplace, the audience has been responsive.
“It’s a tough time to be spending $100,000 on cars, but we think we have a great car and people are responding,” added Baer.
