Cadillac’s re-launch of an iconic car brand for a new era

0:28Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Uncensored CMO. matching up with their CMO, Melissa, alongside their creative partner, 72 & Sunny, to find out all that went into launching, relaunching this iconic car. Here it is. So Melissa from Cadillac and Marianne from 72 & Sunny, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having us. Can't wait for the talk today. Yeah, thrilled to be here. Melissa, tell us how you got into marketing and what got you to Cadillac. So two very different things there. And how I got into marketing is very, it's a it's sort of a funny story or maybe not but as a child I always wanted to be in marketing and advertising and to the point of when I was younger and I used to put on skits or plays for my family they had commercial breaks there are several times in my childhood where I think my mother questioned if I was okay or normal which the answer is definitely no and so I I just always wanted to be in advertising and I remember you know growing up when I did it's it's interesting you know I used to love who's the boss.

1:26And I wanted to be Angela. And that was my dream. So going into college, I knew I wanted to be in advertising. And I went to DePaul. And I remember the first day of my advertising class. And I was so excited because I had to earn the credits to get into advertising. And I walked up to my teacher the first day and I said, this is what I want to do, help me. And she did. She took me under her wing. Her name is Catherine Schulte. And she was one of my favorite teachers and also taught at Northwestern. So she helped guide me into grad school. And for grad school, I was going into Northwestern's IMC program, which has all aspects of advertising and marketing.

2:08And I was going in with the major of advertising. And we were talking about when we grew up earlier today. And so going into Northwestern, I had a student mentor who was going to show me, you know, at the time we had a computer lab, something that I don't think exists anymore. And the vending machines, et cetera. Neil was my mentor and he was supposed to just show me around the campus. And about a week before the program started, he asked me the question that is, I will identify as one of the turning points of my life. And he said, do you like math? And I said, I like math, but I want to do marketing.

2:47That's what I've always wanted. And it was advertising. That's all I knew. I want to do advertising. And he said, it's a very interesting time in the world right now where math and marketing and technology are all coming together. And Northwestern has a program on it. Not a lot of people know how to do this. So if you go into this part of the program, you're going to learn these skills. You'll have them. You can always still do advertising. But if you like math at all, then I suggest that you change what you're doing. I found out later he was in the direct program and there were fewer people there and they were very competitive.

3:21So he was maybe a little self-serving in it, but it literally was a question in a moment that changed my life. And I went into grad school and learned about how data and statistics and technology can enable amazing creativity. And it's been my passion my entire career. Because we often have this battle, don't we, between data-led or being creative-led. But data gets us to what the problem is and insight into the audience. And creativity comes up with the solution and the ideas and kind of propels us forward. It's a blend of both, isn't it? And I guess talking about creativity, Marianne, how did you, what's been your journey to into advertising and to 72?

3:59Well, not a similar story, but I was in college. I went to an accounting class and everything was about staying within the box. And I was like, this is not for me. like follow these rules do these things if you do this you'll get this I was like yeah that's not the way my brain works and a friend of mine was like you should come over to the journalism school which was a communicate had the communications program and the very first class was a brand coming in and you got an assignment and you've got to come up with a marketing campaign for it everything from a media plan to the creative work. And it was the first time that I was working in a collaborative environment.

4:42And I was like, this is where I thrive. I don't want to be doing anything by myself, whatever I'm going to do. I want to do it with people. And in that particular situation, I was working with a creative person who was an amazing, he could draw like no one I've ever, ever seen. And so we ended up doing these ads that stood out better. By the way, this is before computers, just to give you a little bit of context. So we, our ads looked a lot different than everybody else's. So talk about the value of creativity and just how we solve the problems. And at the very end, you would present it to the clients and all of the teachers and the client bought our work.

5:22And that was kind of like the beginning of me getting the hook of, oh, I like this world. And just because there's so many different brilliant minds that work in this business, and we all come together and use our creativity to build business. It's funny, isn't it? Like we all have a moment that we kind of go back to and go, yeah, that's when it will change. I mean, for me, weirdly, I started out in accountancy, and I was actually doing someone's tax return, right? So it does not get more boring than doing a tax return. And I was just asking this guy, what do you do for a job? And he works in marketing.

5:53And I just got talking to him. I thought, I need to be on the other side of the table. I want someone else to be adding up the numbers I've created rather than me doing the adding up. It's weird how these little moments then sort of like project you in a completely new direction. Well, and you have all these ideas, you know, like you think, OK, I'm going to go and get a business degree and then I can do any business. Right. And that is true, except you want to find something that you're really passionate about. And when that's the beautiful thing about college is you can try on a lot of different things and figure out what you're interested in.

6:23And then when you're interested in something and your passion comes to the table, that is the difference of being good and great at something, in my opinion. Because education often focuses on kind of certain skill sets, you know, your scientific, your mathematical, your English. And I was trying to work out which department does the ideas, right? Because I want to be in the ideas department where you come up with stuff. And I kind of thought that maybe marketing might be the closest to that. Probably still is. Yeah, I reckon so. So Melissa, tell us about Cadillac because Cadillac is one of those kind of iconic American brands.

6:54If you think of kind of, you know, classic American brands, how do you kind of, you know, manage a brand with so much heritage and history and modernize it? I think most brands, maybe all brands and companies, have a DNA that is just intrinsic in who they are. And so coming into Cadillac, for me, it was really about digging deep in and understanding what this brand is. And Cadillac is, I think what's interesting, and you called it an iconic brand, right? When we started looking and coming into, because we're really looking at having a full EV portfolio within the next couple months, we will have a vehicle in every segment of EV SUVs.

7:41As we were moving into EV, we had to say, this is a big moment. We're like at the precipice of something very big here. Who are we going to be and what is that going to look like? And we had to go back to the heritage. And when we asked ourselves a question, and we asked ourselves the question, if Cadillac disappeared from the world, what would be missing? And the answer was so simple and beautiful. It's an American icon and a symbol of the American dream. And those are things that have always been true from 1902 when this company was born to now. And we're always innovating. We're always moving.

8:21And that's really what we tapped into. And so I just I feel like this brand, I'm constantly just making sure that I let Cadillac be the best brand that it can be, be the best version of itself that it can be. EV is one of those moments that completely changes the industry, isn't it? because I think, you know, motor cars have kind of been motored by the same propulsion for 100 or so years. And then EV, you know, electrification comes along and it completely changed everything. So how as a manufacturer do you deal with something that kind of almost seems to level the playing field? And I'm not sure that it levels the playing field, but it is very interesting to look at something that we have been doing for 100 years and look at what is going to stay the same and what's going to be different and how do we help customers through it?

9:08And one of the things we looked at coming in in 2019 as we're coming into this decade of the 2020s, we look back and it's very interesting. If you go back 100 years to the 1920s and as the 20s started, there were more horse and buggies than there were combustion engine vehicles. With this 20s, we're coming in with more internal combustion engine, gas-powered engines. And coming out of it, we're going to be, whether it's more or not, we'll see how we're all adapting and where things go, but a huge shift in this decade that we have. And so I think we're having to lean into the manufacturing excellence and processes that we know and at the same time almost a blank slate and how would we do this completely differently and where do those things come together.

10:00So it's actually a lot of fun to be part of. And it's fascinating every day, the things that we're discovering just by having this opportunity to take a new look at things. And it's a totally different product. So I think one of the things we spend a lot of time talking about is like, you're not launching the next vehicle. It is a different product. And so how you launch an EV is different than how you would launch an ice card. is like the consumer, where the consumer is at with it, the different features. There's so many different things that come to the table. You have to really think about, okay, this is not just another car.

10:40It's an EV and it's different. And so that is a really fun challenge. And what does someone need to know that they might not know? What are the fears? Because it's a very different thing. I think where we say they're all great vehicles. It's a very different thing when you have to start to think about how do I charge this versus putting gas and what do I have to learn? What is one pedal driving? What is regenerative braking? All these things. And so the education part of it does become very fun. And it's like familiar and different at the same time, which starts. I think that's part of the key, isn't it?

11:16Because I know for me, I've only recently bought an EV. But, you know, you have those worries about, you know, where do I charge? Will it charge quick enough? Will I run out? There's a whole lot of questions in your mind, isn't it? The challenge is how do you make something that is a big leap feel like a small leap to people and make it kind of familiar? And that's what I think, because you've got all your range now. Am I right in saying all your range now is both combustion engine and EV as well? Yes. So we have a wide breadth of vehicles now. And it is interesting. I think that's been, and for us, what we really want to do is to get more people behind the wheel, even if it's for a little bit just to understand.

11:55EVs are really fun to drive. Instantaneous torque is no joke. It is really fun. And I think the biggest anxiety people have is how am I going to charge this? And I went through this a few years ago when I started driving them. You go from this mindset of how far can I get? I'm putting gas and how far, when do I need to get gas again? And yes, it's very easy to get gas. But most, the majority of the time, there's only a small percentage when you're not driving and charging at home, which means that you don't actually have, like, it's good to know the calculation because there's going to be the road trip.

12:33You're going to be driving to Montreal or wherever you might be going. But the rest of the time, you're going home and you're plugging in your car at night, just like you plug in your phone. And in the morning, it's ready to go. and it's a huge shift and it's the things feel so big and heavy when we don't know them and as soon as you try it you're like oh actually this is this is actually better than what i thought i remember the exact moment i was convinced actually and and and the guy in the dealership said to me uh because i said i'm slightly worried about if i take a long trip and i'll you know run out of electric i'm not sure whether you know the charging points he just said to me how often how many times a year do you drive 300 miles in one go and i sat there and thought well, I don't.

13:15There is no scenario I could think of. And I mean, the UK is a bit smaller than America. I mean, that gets you kind of across the entire country. But actually, when we think about it, there are very few occasions where actually you wouldn't have the range. And the other thing that's amazing is the speeding times to, you know, power back the car is incredible now compared to a few years ago. Yeah, it is. It's really, you know, honestly, now you plug in the car and by the time you get into, you know, we've kind of said, are we going to grab a snack? Are we going to go to the bathroom? And you can literally, I have a baby.

13:46By the time I get him out of the car, get him in whatever, we go in, I change a diaper, we come back, we're ready to go. It's very fast. Now, to your point, Mary, you're talking about kind of a different audience and a different kind of behavior change. So how do you convince people to get into EVs compared to combustion engine? Is there a different approach marketing-wise, do you think? Yeah, you know, we're at an inflection point, I think, with EVs where most people now know about them and we're not having to do a lot of education, which was an amazing part of this launch, right? Because we were really looking at the brand, right?

14:24This is such an iconic brand and it has such special meaning and DNA. And within that, your next product is going to help write the next chapter of Cadillac. So for us, it was really about deeply understanding the brand and deeply understanding the audience and what connected those two things. And then you can, whether or not you're launching an EV or whatever Cadillac wants to do next, you can do it on top of that foundation. So we really spent a lot of time deeply understanding the mindset of the audience and understanding the brand. Because it's such an amazingly story brand. It's one of those iconic brands that you think about.

15:06What are the kind of insights you came up with as you're going through the process? Oh, so amazing. Number one, you know, this represents success. Cadillac represents success. And the cool thing about the generational changes is that success looks and feels different to people now. And so once we started to really look and listen, one of our favorite stats was that most people who drove a Cadillac had a pool in their backyard. Oh. And that just took us down this path of you start to understand success today into our audience is about sharing your success with others. It's not about being alone in your own success.

15:50You are successful to share it together. And that pool insight just started. It took us from achievement into celebration. and celebration is usually about making things an occasion. And that just got us to this amazing moment where we realized when you take the Cadillac, it is not going for a drive. It becomes an occasion when you take the Cadillac now. And I think it was so amazing when we hit that point. I think to go back and I also, as we've talked about, I'm very data oriented. And when I started at Cadillac, there were the two facts that we immediately found out. We weigh over index on the title of CEO and president.

16:37And there's a very high index of people having pools. And going back into the history of what Cadillac has always been and a symbol of the American dream, the CEO and president is because we have so many entrepreneurs. And when you start your company, you're like, I'm the president of Melissa Grady Diaz, like incorporated, whatever it is. The pool was always a little harder for us to uncover what that meant. The other thing I think, and this was some of the, just the beauty of when we were working together, Cadillac is so woven into the history of both the country and of people's lives, people's stories.

17:15People, I love the fact that people come up to me all the time and say, when my uncle came to this country, my grandma was so proud the day that, like, we've got all of these stories. And what we realized, and we've always known that about ourselves, but I think the big unlock together that we came to was that that moment, that moment of pride isn't about buying the Cadillac. It's about every time you get in and that sense of occasion and that sense of sharing joy. And that's, I think, just what it's just opened up this whole platform for us, which is how we got to exactly what Marianne said. So you came up with this insight.

17:59What was the strategy then that you developed off the back of that for the new campaign? Well, you know, when you're leveling up a trip to an occasion, right, it's very different on the Escalade, which was the first vehicle that we were launching on, because the Escalade in and of itself is a brand, right? It comes with a lot. Talk about occasion. It is like the proof. So what was so amazing about this opportunity was the EV and obviously all of the design and the incredible things that are different about this product. We had this platform that we could then shine a light on. It was just a marriage made in heaven that the very first vehicle we were going to talk about was the brand new Escalade IQ.

18:42And then we quickly followed it up. It's very interesting. Escalade IQ and Optic, which is the entry level EV that we have, which is also just an absolutely incredible car. So it's like it just it works that no matter which Cadillac you're talking about. And of course, there's the Celestic, which is hand built one of one all the way through to the Optic. It doesn't matter. You get into the vehicle and it's suddenly an occasion. It's suddenly this moment. It becomes a thing. Now it's a thing. We're going to take the Cadillac. And where did that, because that's now the platform you've created, isn't it?

19:16That's the idea for the new campaign. When did that appear as an idea? How did you come up with that? Oh, my gosh. I would say it was probably like round three. We were in a pitch process where we were really trying to break the platform, figure out what is the platform. And Matt Jarvis and John Boiler, who are two of the founders, 72 and Sunny, Matt Jarvis told this amazing story about being out at John Boiler's house in Palm Desert and in Palm Springs. And they were he has an old convertible 50s Cadillac and they were getting ready to go out for a team dinner. And I'll never forget Jarvis just turning around.

20:01He goes, I just I remember it clear as day. day, John just walked out and was like, let's take the Cadillac. And we all just had this moment right there and then like that special thing. It was about taking the Cadillac together. It was about everyone getting there. And whether or not you're telling the stories about your success and building your company and all of the, you know, you've gotten to this level of achievement. So you're buying yourself a Cadillac. It's the fact that you want to take that Cadillac with your wife, with your family, with your girlfriends and go out and do something special and to literally make a drive to the grocery store special because you're going to take your Cadillac.

20:43That's where we were just like, oh, yeah, that is when we talk about the emotion of the brand, the modernity of the brand that today's world is about experience and then just the experience of these cars in and of itself. We just found this beautiful, sweet spot. Yeah. And you're very good at finding the emotion. A lot of the work you guys do really uncovers the emotion behind the brand, doesn't it, in a very special way? Well, when we started really, you know, we were all talking to each other, but what we were talking about is what our consumers were telling us. Our job is to do the listening.

21:14So we were out talking to our potential consumers and listening to them talk about how they like to spend their time and why they're working this hard. And it was so amazing. You would even have 28-year-old success stories saying like, I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this for we. Like I don't work this hard for myself. I work this hard because I want to be able to share it with everybody. And that is why I do it. So what goes into like this car launch feels like a pretty big deal, right? And a lot goes into it. Can you describe what happens when you launch a new car? Oh, gosh. It starts so much before the car is going to launch, years before.

21:59Automotive is so fascinating. And so we start very early on. I mean, years before a car launch, just to like quickly go through that, you have concepts, you have ideas. These ideas will morph into different shapes. What's the haunch of the car? What do the headlights look like, et cetera? Cadillac is one of those. I love the design that we have. We have the vertical headlights. And I always say, if you're driving at night and you see that Cadillac coming up behind you, there is just no question. And so all of that early design work goes in, and then we do testing, and we talk to people. We understand trends.

22:39And then you fast forward to now the car is going to come into market. And, you know, starting probably about a year before, we start to look at here's the cadence of everything. And, you know, a car launch also is not a moment. You start to get cars on the ground and they build up. So we start to look at what's that reveal moment and what are we doing in the reveal moment? What are we going to do between the reveal and when you can start ordering them because you can order them before they're in? And then what are we going to do when they're all on the ground? And so there's a whole strategy and different moments that we build.

23:15And then, you know, we get to, as you look at like Escalade IQ or Optic, which launched right next to each other, then what is that actual TV, social, digital, out of home? What is all that going to look like? And then, you know, once it's going and the dealers are selling it, what, how are we going to make those assets adaptable for the dealers to make sure that whatever's going on in their market, they can be ready. So let's take the Cadillac being the kind of campaign idea. How does that show up in different ways? I mean, there's obviously the TV film itself, but what other ways does that appear?

23:50What's very interesting and fun is that it's very flexible. And so I think, you know, you'll start to see it peeking through in different digital video, etc. I think if you want to look at how flexible is this platform, and it was such a moment when they nailed it, we went through a lot of different iterations of digital, out of home, you know, here's when we were in the early concepting phase. And as you know, Cadillac, as you may or may not know, Cadillac is very big in racing. So we're in IMSA and WAC now and obviously moving into F1. And at the end of all the concepts, there was this sort of like Easter egg shot of in the pit, a giant billboard with what the V series are vehicle.

24:39And it said, let's take the Cadillac. And so this really is just something that can it can go anywhere. That's amazing. Whether you're talking about racing or a digital ad or I think one of the most amazing things is when you launch it on a car like the Escalade, everybody's talking about the fact that they got an Escalade. So whether it's Shaq or whoever, you know, they're getting their cars and they're talking about these pop. It's like the perfect storytelling of let's take the Cadillac over and over again. It's not just the car, but who's seen in the car. You know, that must be a big part of the, you know, building the reputation around the car as well.

25:14Yeah, it's an interesting thing. So, you know, if you look at something like Celestic, for instance, we won't really talk about the process of the people because it's a very private thing. And we see that, too, with those who drive. And, you know, when we look at influencers or celebrities or whatever, we're always trying to respect people's privacy. But then we also love to know who wants to talk with us, who wants to be part of our story. So that's how we approach the celebrity angle of it. Now, you guys have recently, you've just recently started working. This is the first campaign. What's it been like working together and how do you kind of get the most out of the relationship?

25:52I guess an iconic brand on one side and one of the best creative agencies on the other. They bring the energy every step of the way and the positivity and it's contagious. It's been really great to work together. So I think, you know, we've been in this learning phase of, you know, we like if you were dating and then you just jumped in and it's been very collaborative. She has talked a lot about listening. I think we both listen a lot and we probably all listen more than we talk. And we're all thinkers, too. So we'll talk and then we come back and then we talk again. And that's I think one of the things that's been so great for me is how things move forward.

26:34And if you talked about, you know, as we were going through it being the third round and it was like, okay, this is what I heard. And we're like, this is what I heard. And I think that's been one of the really beautiful things about the relationship. We call it a learning mindset at 72 and 70. We're always in one. One of the things when you're, when you have a new relationship, like you have to go through the process a couple of times, right? So we've just done our first big one, right, where you learn a lot. You soup to nuts. even in production and getting cars like every company whether you've shot a million cars every situation is different and so you learn so much but I do think you know 72 and sunny we're the kind of agency that likes to roll up our sleeves and get dirty to we want to get in there together I think there's a lot of agencies that and client relationships with the client just want you to bring them the solution and then they'll take the solution and they'll move it forward in their organization.