Brief assessment of Spanish car market communications approach, defining main trends and traits and offering an observational and qualitative overview of recent car brands communications.

1. Car Talks
Spanish creative scenario :
brief understanding and critical review of
communications positioning in Spain
http://flickr.com/people/dieels69/ © Dylam Malam

2. History before the
history
http://flickr.com/photos/martapereyra/ © Marta Pereyra
Some brands and
commercials have
defined critical
changes that have
become a “normative”
on current creative
scenario

3. Late 80´s and 90´s shows a dramatic shift on car
communications
More life-style and attitudinal approaches, sometimes
challenging old or classic conventionalities.
Adding new creative formats, less oriented to just “show the
car” and beginning to use more sophisticated or rhetorical
models.
Re-engineering also motivational proposition as for example
the sense and meaning of success or achievement,
overcoming topical status and luxury schemes.
Anticipating changes that become later on real “new
conventions”.

4. Creative scenario… what's really new?
Focus on image and emotion : building brand
engagement becomes partly the key task of TV
while other touchpoints support understanding and
learning specificity.
More smart and allegorical, even symbolic
propositions : minimalist, brain-demanding,
sometimes elusive
Everybody try to out-smart the competition.
Looking for brand territories related to hard content
or intangible propositions (emotion).

5. Beyond brand boundaries there is a
common trait.
Two basic lines of work:
– Smart-piece-of-thinking: devising smart and
ingenious creative propositions that sometimes
becomes challenging and intriguing to audiences.
– Engagement – by –Entertaiment : playing with
surprising or provocative visuals or paradoxical
items (animals, transforming objects, bigger-
than-life). Looking for visual Entertaiment with
some “intellectual” cue-

6. … such traits should be framework in an
increase attention to targets of
segments, becoming more defined by
attitudinal traits just descriptive
demographical.
Reaching and connecting with young drivers :
– Fun, irony, daringness.
Mid-age adults:
– Understanding age contradictions and role conflicts.
– Provide new approaches to status and desire of success.
– Assuming emotional needs: missing the youngster old good
times.
New attitudinal patterns : environmental and social
responsibility.
Addressing women as a critical target.

7. Car advertising has lead new
interpretations of psico-social
motivations showing the change
social fabrics.
New luxury and status
Achievement and life conflict conciliation
New young adult priorities
Car as a badge of my new attitudes and
priorities

8. Two benchmarks becomes epitomes of
creative changes
AUDI: BMW
– Consistently setting new – Readdressing totally the
standards of brand drivers at the end of
aspirationality. 90´s
– Inventing contemporary – New symbolic and even
car status. poetical advertising to
surprise an sets apart the
– Adding personality and
brand
attitude to dramatic
leverage of technical – Adding sensorial and
features. allegorical propositions
– Product advertising is – Breaks advertising
specific even consistent conventionalities
distinctive advertising sets – Product become brand
a new paradigm. advertising

9. Following this benchmarks
all brands have dramatically
renew communications: all
brands have assume some
ingenuity, irony or tricky
approaches trying defining
territories or release
“surprising” pieces of work

10. Beyond the “smart slice” …
mainstreamers
Mid & low end look for specific territories and leverage
perceived superiorities
– RENAULT :
Safety commitment.
Youngsters empathy.
Formula 1 success … Fernando Alonso endorsement.
– CITROEN – PEUGEOT.
A “French clusters” : strong key visuals, surrealistic.
– SEAT:
Look for a territory to leverage outside and inside : AUTO-Emotion.
Shifting perceptions to more engaging and impulsive brand.

11. The best and
the worse.

12. For good …
Spain becomes a highly competitive creative
market. Brand and consumers assume more
interesting and intriguing advertising.
Challenging consumer intelligence and
reflecting attitudinal changes helps to set
high standards.
Brands have critical review task and deliver
of advertising, recovering brand building
strategies as key priority.

13. For bad …
Sometimes smartness becomes a priority
beyond relevance or engagement.
Consumer are exposed to “intellectual
”advertising built around rhetorical voice
over declarations illustrated by some
“already-becoming topical” nice shootings.
The syndrome of “so-what” becomes a
danger. Structures tend to be topical :
smart pirouette follow by brand closing
shot. Distinctiveness could become difficult .

14. Mass-market is more concern about
become noisy.
CITROEN - PEUGEOT are engaged in a every time more
difficult visual pirouette that provides awareness but not
always critical brand contents.
RENAULT:
– It have been devoted to created safety credentials in an empathic
way, while look for more proximity to young drivers to leas low
end segments.
SEAT.
– Building a consistent brand image proposition is critical.
Emotionality and young appeal become big issues. But the risk is
to excessively approaching the brand communications to
standards that belong to others brands as Volkswagen.

15. Spanish market key topics.
It is possible to built up a quite unique approach through anticipation
and empathy with new consumer standards : AUDI.
Advertising could enrich technological credibility with more appealing
emotional relationship :BMW.
Status, luxury, success, achievement need new standards … AUDI,
BMW.
Advertising could leverage values or re-address brand image in mid
& low end brands : Volkswagen, Renault, Seat.
Brands could assume new contents as safety (Renault) or
emotionality (Seat).
Even ingenuity and smartness creates attractively, there is also a
convergence amongst brand. Distinctivity between brands of
different or shared segments should be critical to achieve brand &
advertising recognition and efficient expenditure and brand
preference.