Ike

Their whole campaign for the Zoom Zoom thing was catchy but got rather annoying fast, plus very cutesy. Then they have a car hugging it's owner, again, cutesy. Now we have the commercials with the guys in white coats from other car companies getting scared about how great the Mazda cars are. These commercials have the feel of what some cheeseball local dealer would make for a commercial and buy spots for at 1am on basic cable. They're not funny in the least and I just want to roll my eyes every time I see one.

So today I see the new MS6 commercial. Mazdas want to portray this as a sporty car that will appeal to the enthusiast type, right? So what does the commercial have, some guy buying a helmet for his dog so he's more streamline when he puts his cute little face out the window... Are these car commercials or bad straight to video Disney movies? Is Mazda trying to especially market to effeminate men and women that have a penchant for cheesiness?

tiggerlee

Sometimes "cheesy" sells. Some of the most "cheesiest" commercials are some of the most memorable.

zaglo6204

word... & the helmet sort of associates with racing or whatever, but i dont really know, i havent seen the commercial

Ike

He buys him an aerodynamic cycling helmet.

Rhawb

Damn Ike, watch more tv. That commercial's been on for 3 or 4 months now


...or maybe I should watch less...

rotarygod

If the adds weren't effective, you wouldn't remember them as good as you do. That's the key to advertising. It's producing memorable segments that get people talking whether it's good or bad. It worked. Remember the Quiznos sponge monkeys? Terrible quality add but everyone remembers them and who they are associated with. That makes it a success. Volkswagon has got some goods ones now too. Whether or not you like VW's, you'll remember those adds when you see them. Mazda's on the ball if you remember them so well.

Japan8

^^ True... very true...

Steiner

I hate all car commercials. They're mostly geared toward retards. The car commercials on SPEED channel are no better even though the cars are typically limited edition sports models. Bike commercials on the other hand are usually pretty cool and make me want to ride one.

You know If I was in marketing for a big auto manufacturer my car commercial would be brief and simple with a small disclaimer at the bottom of the screen warning people that a professional driver is behind the wheel. It would be a split screen with the "in-cabin" view on top and the outside view on bottom. The car would be hauling *** down a twisty mountain road. That's all I need to see and hear. I'll research the rest on my own.

saturn

More people know what an Evo is than an RX-8 by a mile and I've never seen an Evo commercial ever. Mazda's commercials are flat out terrible especially when it comes to the 8.

Remember that Eclipse commercial with the girl dancing in the front seat? That commercial was memorable (even if most people thought it was strange) and it translated to massive sales increases for the Eclipse.

Mazda has no problem with brand recognition. The Zoom Zoom campaign was memorable with the song because it was catchy. They had the ability to take all that and turn it into something more targeted to each car, but they didn't. The average person doesn't know what the models are or what these cars are even about.

The 8 is such a terribly advertised car. So many car enthusiast on this forum have noted that they were looking for a 350Z/G35/Evo/STi and thought, well, I might as well check out Mazda and see what this "RX-8" thing is all about.

No doubt they made a very unique car -- all they have to do now is tell people about it. The fact that they don't boggles my mind.

buzzardsluck

^^true for me, I went out to look at the 350z & G series stuff wasn't impressed by it and just went to a mazda lot for fun and saw the rx8 for the first time. until then i had no idea it existed.

New Yorker

"Cheesy" commercials don't sell because they're cheesy. Yes, often they ARE memorable, but NOT because they're cheesy. They're memorable because, typically, the worst commercials have the biggest media budgets. You remember them because they're on ALL THE TIME. Good commercials—what few there are—are memorable, too; not because they're on so much, but because they're compelling. I can assure you no one would notice or remember the Mazda "competing engineers" commercial if it was on as rarely as VW's "obey your fast" spots. And the RX-8 spot with the hugging doors was great. It totally captured the way 8 owners feel about their car AND managed to show off its visually arresting (and practical) suicide doors as well. And it did it with hardly a word of copy. Very memorable, considering it ran, what, five times in two years?

Steiner

Fast cars sell themselves. It's a niche market really. Margins on these cars are typically low for the manufacturer, dealer incentives usually don't apply, and test drives are few and far between. The RX-8 is/was Mazda's flagship. I think it's a car designed to bring people to the dealership. Same with the Evo, 350Z, Corvette and Viper. I just wish they could make the commercials for better selling cars more interesting. Just because you buy a minivan doesn't mean you couldn't appreciate some footage of it drifting down a hillside. Even the crappiest cars can do some cool things with a good driver.

saturn

Those were probably the best commercials ever. I have never nor will I ever eat at Quizznos but those retarded Picasso-esque guitar playing hamster creatures are embedded in my memory for all time.

WE LOVES THESE SUUUUBS!

Genius.

saturn

I don't see how you car say that the RX-8 is a car designed to bring people into the dealership when most people have no idea that the car exists. The 350Z sells itself as well as bringing people into the brand and dealerships -- not the RX-8.

tiggerlee

Hence my comment.
btw I've been in marketing for nearly 15 years now.


Do you recall the Wendy's "where's the beef" commercials? Very simple,very low budget and yes very "cheesy" in my opinion. But some of the most memorable commercials to date.

expo1

The point of the where’s the beef campaign was to claim Wendy’s hamburgers have more beef than it’s competitors and took a cheesy route to make it. Cheesy is ok as long as it hits your goal at the same time.

Mazda could have done cheesy ads to prove some points also. Have aliens land on earth and see junked piston motors and cars except for the RX-8's & 7's which are still running. It closes with a gear head type dropping a rotary into their spacecraft. Show kids playing with Matchbox cars making them crash, jump things like we all did then along comes a kid with a toy RX-8 and all the other kids give him grief for wanting to abuse even a toy RX-8. Pan away with the RX-8 toy enjoying all the piston cars lying in a heap. Cheesy can work very well if it hits a point.

tiggerlee

but of course, It wouldn't be profitable otherwise.

New Yorker

Just for the record, those Wendy spots were hardly cheesy. (Unless, when you say cheesy, you mean silly or off-the-wall, which they certainly were.) Those spots are considered, even today, to be some of the finest commercials ever made. They were conceived and directed by some of the best people in the business. Nothing cheesy about them!

Steiner

That same advertising firm did the Alaska Airlines and Round Table Pizza commercials. They were on a roll!

lesper4

iTrader: (3)

just got to say it, yeah mazda does not advertise their cars that well especially the 8 but on the upside we get all these people walking up to us..."what car is that? wow i really like it". the conversation i had at the car wash tonight....it makes it worth while to educate people about our cars our selves.

dillsrotary

imo the best commercials now are geico, the "big buckin chicken", and hate to say it but the 350z. That commercial with the silver convert, the black couple, and the red nismo is a great commercial, spirited driving, nice sounds from the car, and lastly a catchy tune "drivin in my car......"

6speed8

Actually the ads have worked quite well, as we just spent two pages talking about them - pretty impressive!

swoope

iTrader: (5)

geico, you have to be kidding me. a aussi speaking gecko selling a web site...

geico and the adds with the gecko suck.

beers

Ike

Talking about how bad they are... I doubt most people who don't own a Mazda even notice them.

There are some great commercials out there that don't cost a lot of money or take a genius to come up with. It seems that Mazda just isn't hiring the right people to do their commercials and that and the people in their marketing department that are OKing these ideas and ads only still have jobs because Mazda is making some great cars that are increasing their sales.

I'm sure GM spent some big money on this one, but I think it's a great commercial, I also think the recent Solstice and G6 ads were very good though very simple. The Nissan commercial mentioned earlier is also quite good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A4mJ...M%20commercial

SlayerRX8

The RX-8 hugging commercial is decent. I wouldn't call it amazing, but it's somewhat memorable.

[rant]The "Zoom Zoom" commercials are another story. I HATE them. Sure it's catchy, but in the most annoying way possible. Bad commercials reflect poorly on the product and the company. To be honest, I found that the Zoom Zoom commercials make mazda seem cheap, and not in a good way, either. It just makes Mazda seem like a cheapo japanese car. In fact, these commercials almost ruined Mazda for me. Luckily, I read a million sports car reviews, and just about everyone loved the 8. Not everyone is willing to give the brand a second chance. When you say you own a Mazda, how many people become really interested? Not many. If people actually DROVE these cars, they would understand how fun they are.

All this could be fixed with better advertising...if it's performance/sport oriented, make the ads more edgy and slick. [/rant]

Edit: isn't it funny how surprised people get when "that mystery car" you pull up in is a mazda?