They can continue to produce cars no one wants or can afford. They build automobiles that are very 20th century. They cry to Congress they need a bail out. They don’t understand what’s so wrong with flying the private jets to DC. You can say all of that but don’t say they are not hip on the non-traditional marketing scene.
Yes, it’s true they are taking to the web to sway all of us what “good guys” they are. They are going digital to have us tell Congress that we love the Big Three and want them to get the money. According to today’s Wall Street Journal Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler are bringing their message to Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the blogs.
The car companies understand these online messages will last a long time. Once something is posted it can stay out there forever. I see this all the time even with this blog. Posts that I wrote months ago are still getting hits everyday.
They know that the right use of ”tag” or “keywords” will get them to the top of the Google search. I am sure that the car companies are currently among the top searches. When a searcher types in these words they could be sent to one of the many websites or blogs that the car companies have set up to lobby their case. They are even buying search ads on Google. Ford has staff that’s job is to scan the social network sites and exchange messages with other users.
Another good reason the Big Three are using these forms of marketing is the image of spending “big bucks” on traditional marketing to get the message out. I guess they did learn from the corporate jet screw up. I still cannot believe not one of the CEO’s or their “people” didn’t think about the image of flying a corporate jet with their hands out. Is this not part of PR 101? Of course to fix that mistake they make the return to DC into a big driving event. How predictable of a PR move was that?
Look for more big corporate companies to take the marketing message deep into the web in 2009. I will say it again; this is marketing/PR for the 21st century.
Have a great weekend!
Tags: Big Three, blogs, Chrysler, Congress, Facebook, Ford, General Motors, Google, keywords, PR 101, private jets, tags, Twitter, Youtube
