The shift in attitudes is being spurred by technology, in that many younger consumers are more interested in the newest smartphone or tablet than in the newest sedan or T-top. The cooling of the love affair between youths and cars could jeopardize billions of dollars in automotive sales — and billions of dollars in advertising spending in the automotive category, which is typically the largest category when United States ad expenditures are tallied each year.
“The digitalization of our world, mobile phones and social media have allowed a certain level of independence,” said Loren Angelo, general manager for brand marketing at Audi of America in Herndon, Va., part of Volkswagen. “That’s what the automobile used to provide.”
Data shows that significantly fewer young consumers today are getting driver’s licenses compared with a decade ago, he said.
Although the brand’s core buyers are in their 30s and 40s, Mr. Angelo said, Audi of America seeks to offer products that “teens would aspire to” — among them the Audi A3, a smaller, entry-level sedan, and the Audi R8 sports car.
“To keep relevant conversations going” with younger potential customers, he added, “we want to keep the brand on the cutting edge” through technological innovations like LED headlights and using social media as a communications tool.
Doug Murtha, vice president at Scion, the youth-focused brand from the Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. division of Toyota, said, “Some things have changed in the world, and we have to acknowledge that.”
Still, Mr. Murtha said he thought any flagging of interest among millennials was more likely attributable to their shaky finances than to their ability “to socialize from their bedrooms, so they don’t need transportation to the mall.”
To reach Generation Y, he said, Scion is taking “a very subtle selling approach” typified by “creating a lot of content like documentary-style films and free music” and making it available on a special Web site, ScionAV.com (“AV” standing for “audiovisual”), separate from the regular Scion Web site, scion.com.
Another example of a youth-centric initiative is Toyota’s decision to buy, for the first time, advertising space in Teen Vogue magazine, owned by the Condé Nast Publications division of Advance Publications. The ads will bear the Toyota logo and the brand’s current marketing theme, “Let’s go places,” but they will not be promoting entry-price cars like the Toyota Yaris or the Prius C.
Instead, the ads, scheduled to begin appearing in the May issue of Teen Vogue, will encourage teenage girls and their mothers to pledge to “Arrive in style” and be safe drivers by signing the so-called Toyota Mutual Driving Agreement and avoiding distractions like calls, e-mails and text messages when behind the wheel. The initiative, to be formally announced on Tuesday, will also include video clips; a presence in social media, highlighted by a Twitter hashtag, a section of the Teen Vogue Web site; events; and a contest.
As the mother of a teenager who turned 16 last week, Marjorie Schussel, corporate marketing manager at Toyota Motor North America, said, “I’m one of the millions of parents across the country concerned with this issue.”
“Teen Vogue is the perfect platform to amplify this message with teen girls in a fun and engaging way,” she said.
As for any diminution in interest in cars among millennials, “the reality is we know they’re all going to drive at some point,” Ms. Schussel said. “And when they do drive, they need to be as safe as possible.”
The “Arrive in style” initiative is in addition to Toyota efforts that include Web sites devoted to teenage drivers and how they drive. The campaign is being created by Teen Vogue and an agency that works for Toyota, the Dentsu America unit of Dentsu.
While some teenagers might be less interested in cars than their older siblings or parents, said Scott Daly, executive media director at Dentsu America in New York, “Teen Vogue thinks its audience is interested and thinks it’s an important issue to its audience, and that gives it a little more credibility.”
The budget for the “Arrive in style” campaign, scheduled to appear through February 2014, is estimated at $2 million. It includes 13 ad pages in Teen Vogue and Toyota’s becoming a sponsor of the magazine’s second annual Back-to-School Saturday, a national shopping promotion.
“Amy Astley and I were talking about important initiatives we could get behind,” said Jason Wagenheim, vice president and publisher of Teen Vogue in New York, referring to the magazine’s editor in chief. “One of the most important issues today facing our audience, millennials, is distracted driving and the dangers it causes.”
He added, “We decided to approach one automaker partner, and went to Toyota first because of its history in driver education, in the teen new-driver segment in particular.”
It is not lost on Mr. Wagenheim that, as he put it, “teens are much more likely to be distracted drivers, or be a passenger in a car with someone who is not focused on the road, because they’re so connected” — and, by the same token, that a serious side effect of today’s teenagers’ being “so hyperconnected” is distracted driving.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/business/media/automotive-industry-ad-campaign-focuses-on-young-drivers.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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