“You only get one shot,” hip-hop artist Eminem rapped on the lead track for “8 Mile,” his 2002 film. It turns out Chrysler Group LLC is giving the Detroiter another chance to tout its product -- this time on a nameplate.
The next phase of Chrysler’s “Imported From Detroit” campaign, which debuted with Eminem in a two-minute Super Bowl commercial in 2011, includes an 8 Mile edition of the Chrysler 200 sedan to mark the movie’s 10-year anniversary, said Olivier Francois, the automaker’s chief marketing officer. It’s also introducing a 300 Motown sedan that will be tied to Broadway’s new show “Motown: The Musical,” Francois said in an interview.
Chrysler is combining new models such as the Dodge Dart compact and Ram 1500 pickup with what Reid Bigland, the U.S. sales chief, calls “buzz packages” to extend its streak of year-over-year sales gains beyond 30 months. Chrysler had the first Super Bowl ad to thank for some of its early monthly gains, which were recorded as the carmaker rebounded from its 2009 bankruptcy.
“If you wanted to change the conversation about Chrysler - - Chrysler the bailout company, Chrysler the Detroit company -- we had to change the conversation about Detroit itself,” Francois, 51, said this week in an interview. “We needed to give Detroit credit for what it really does stand for.”
The Detroit-themed 200 and 300 sedans were among 66 future models that Chrysler showed to dealers last month during a preview of products planned by 2014. The Auburn Hills, Michigan- based automaker just completed a commercial for the 300 Motown, Francois said. It’s unclear whether Eminem will appear in another commercial to promote the 200 8 Mile. Marketing plans for that car are “still in discussion,” he said.
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