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The teaser: Alive and well in automotive marketing
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It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book for launching a new, highly anticipated product, but it’s still alive and well in automotive marketing. Indeed, the slow tease has become a staple in the arsenal of an increasing number of automakers lately. Acura did it with the ZDX. Lotus did it with the Evora (Eagle). Tesla killed us with the Model S. Rolls Royce tortured the insanely rich with a little Ghost tease. And now Audi’s decided get in on the fun and tease us with a little peek at the potential redesign of their flagship, the A8. It’s the “it” thing right now, and I'm guessing it'll stay that way.
But why are so many automakers turning to the tease as they launch new products? Aside from the fact that it usually escalates the level of anticipation in the market, I think they’re realizing that when they release their products in small, vague doses they can take advantage of massive amounts of media coverage available via blogs and automotive news sites like Jalopnik, GoTryke, Autoweek, Autopia, Motortrend, etc. that are rabidly covering ALL of the developments in the automotive world. And those combined with conversation on Twitter, Facebook and all of the other social media tools, the word-of-mouth generated is immense.
I love this as a tactic for a product reveal. Especially when given a unique twist, like the Lotus Evora, where the automaker sent press outlets a series of images of the technologies and components that made the car innovative, rather than just images of the design itself (That's called sticking to the brand message). One thing I’m hoping to see is a teaser campaign that ties in better with interactive media. We’ve seen microsites that release the teaser images, but none that integrate in a meaningful way with a cohesive social media or guerilla marketing effort.
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