Commonwealth McCann, Chevy Know You Want a Truck

Commonwealth McCann has debuted a new campaign for the Chevy Colorado entitled “You Know You Want a Truck.”

In the “Focus Groups” spot above, they polled groups including “guys with bears,” “single women,” “rich housewives,” children and the elderly. The results? Truck guys are 85% more handsome, 76% more resourceful and 100 percent more likely to have an awesome pet. Other spots include the creation of “Truck Guy” deodorant and a “Trucked Out” dating profile. Each spot presents itself in a documentary style (and claims to use “real people, not actors”) but also features a playful tone that shows the brand isn’t taking things too seriously.

“The films are centered around the idea that there is an inner truck guy in everyone,” said Paul Edwards, U.S. vice president, Chevrolet marketing. “The game-changing Chevrolet Colorado will enable people to unleash their inner truckness.” (more…)

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Commonwealth/McCann Highlight Chevy’s Tech Cred

You’re almost certainly aware that General Motors is currently suffering through a scandal created by its lack of tech savvy. Yet, even as the terrible PR is somehow increasing sales numbers for the automaker, a new spot created by Commonwealth/McCann indicates that Chevrolet wants customers to know that it’s moving on. In fact, we might say that the brand has begun “a new journey.”

This spot is ostensibly all about the 4G Wi-Fi available in new models, but in a larger sense it’s about how Chevrolet is moving forward on all cylinders and bringing its customers along for the ride.

The July 4th debut was no accident, either: as Chevy’s VP of Marketing puts it, “What better time than the Fourth of July to celebrate the new independence that Chevrolet provides”…via working Wi-Fi.

In order to reinforce this point, the team at Commonwealth/McCann Detroit adroitly make the sort of “that was then, this is now” juxtapositions that one sees in many campaigns for products with tech components.

Credits after the jump.

(more…)

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Commonwealth/McCann Launches ‘The New Us’ Olympic Campaign for Chevy

Commonwealth/McCann Detroit is launching a new campaign for Chevrolet called “The New Us” featuring eight new spots that will run during the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games.

At the heart of the new campaign is the 60 second brand anthem “#TheNew Us,” which will debut tonight during the Opening Ceremonies. The spot “blends real-life events, news clips, and social media to show that even though the world is constantly changing, the things that matter most remain the same.” Most notably, the spot shows a gay wedding ceremony over the narration, “Like the old love, the new love starts with a kiss,” in a well-timed show of support for gay rights (Take that, Putin).

“Perhaps more than any other event, the Winter Games represents the global values that unite us,” explained Tim Mahoney, ?chief marketing officer, Global Chevrolet and Global GM Marketing Operations. “In this context, we saw an opportunity to extend the Find New Roads story by showing how Chevrolet is helping consumers try new things and break new ground.”

For the social media aspect of the campaign, Chevrolet is asking consumers, “What’s #TheNew to you?” (which is kind of awkwardly phrased, no?) and encouraging them to share their own stories.

The other television spots in the campaign highlight how new technologies in select Chevy models improve consumers’ lives. One of these spots, “The New Family” for the Chevy Traverse, contains a refreshing mix of unorthodox families (including multiple gay couples) with the positive message, “While what it means to be a family hasn’t changed, what a family looks like has.” It’s a genuinely nice message, and a great way to show solidarity with American LGBT athletes competing in the games. You can check out “The New Family” below, along with “The New World” for Chevy Cruze and campaign credits after the jump.
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JWT/Team Detroit’s Pascoe Takes Creative Reins at Commonwealth

Well, this was the tip that we received verbatim yesterday afternoon that pretty much nailed it: “gary pascoe – ECD at Team Detroit.. or was. he’s gone. Left on his own. Leading up some other DET shop.” And yes, the McCann camp has announced that Pascoe is indeed leading another Detroit shop, namely its Chevy-focused, IPG-owned unit Commonwealth. Pascoe is joining as agency as chief creative officer, North America. Most recently, the creative exec spent three-and-a-half years as ECD at JWT/Team Detroit, serving as ECD on not only various Ford accounts, but others including Sports Authority and Etch-a-Sketch.

In a statement, Linus Karlsson, chief creative officer for global brands at Commonwealth overseer McCann Worldgroup, says, “Gary is an incredible talent who is going to bring the kind of creative passion and leadership that will help define Commonwealth moving forward and build on the momentum we have seen over the last few months. He is behind some of the best work in the category and we are incredibly happy to have him join the team and help us tell the Chevrolet brand story in exciting new ways.”

While we reported about cuts last week at Commonwealth, our sources mentioned that the agency was also hiring aplenty and Pascoe is actually just one of several additions to the creative team. Along with the new CCO, the agency has also brought on Bob Guisgand, Duffy Patten and Erika Kayuk as creative directors. Prior to joining Commonwealth, Guisgand and Patten served as CD/art director and CD/copywriter, respectively, at Fallon while Kayuk, who will focus on Chevy.com, arrives from Organic.

As for Pascoe, the newly minted CCO also spent several years as a senior creative at the likes of BBDO Detroit/NYC as well as TBWA\Chiat\Day L.A., the latter of which he worked on past and present clients including Nissan, PlayStation and Taco Bell.

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