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Chevrolet winning teen ad to be aired during the Super Bowl
Katie Crabb, a shy 19 year-old has created an ad for Chevrolet at a price that will surely make other people envious of her---a mouth watering .6 million. Crabb has won a nationwide competition by Chevrolet which involves designing a 30-second commercial for the company’s new line of crossover cars.
The ad created by Crabb is scheduled to be aired this weekend during the Super Bowl which is a popular event not only because of the game but more for the commercials. The average price of the 30 second spot ad which will be aired on CBS this Sunday is .6 million. Crabb commented in an interview at her home in North Prairie, about 45 miles west of Milwaukee, “I can’t even imagine having that much money in my life and then spend it on one 30-second spot.”
Chevrolet has invited all college students this fall to participate in a competition that will put their creativity to good use. The competition aims to create an ad that will target a younger audience focusing on the company’s HHR, Cobalt, Equinox or Aveo with their top of the line GM parts.
Chevrolet is not the only one that is into the amateur ad craze - even Doritos and the National Football League are employing novice ad creators as well especially during Super Bowl wherein the stakes are high and slots are expensive.
According to Kim Kosak, General Director of Advertising and Sales promotions for Chevrolet, a unit of General Motors Corp., the winning ad would have to be “smart, simple and breakthrough”. “We wanted something that was risk-taking and breakthrough, because if you’re going to do the Super Bowl you have to take risks.”
Katie Crabb was a freshman at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee who joined the competition as part of an assignment in a journalism class. She never imagined that she could win, “It was one of those things where you take the opportunity because it’s there. But it’s like---‘it’s going happen to someone else because it never happens to you’—that kind of mindset,” she said.
Chevrolet has received entries from 820 teams from 230 schools. Five teams comprising of 11 students were selected as finalists and were brought to Detroit in late October to work with advertising professionals to develop their pitches and present their ideas. During the contest Crabb was the youngest participant and the only solo finalist.
Her winning ad which will be aired throughout the year showcased an HHR stopped in New York City with men swarming the car, hoping to wash it so that they can touch it. According to Crabb her ad shows a different side of Chevrolet and at the same time employing a different approach to advertising cars which are often directed for male audiences. She also added that she has been a football fan and watched every game and commercials for years.
“We never get commercials that are for us, very rarely we do, especially with car commercials” Crabb pertaining to ads directed for women audience.
Crabb for her add infused comedy because she believes that in order to get your commercial noticed you have to make it funny. “You’re never going to get noticed without being funny or so out there that people are like, ‘What was that?’”.
So why did Chevrolet choose Crabb’s ad? According to Kosak, the ad created by Crabb was easy to understand and appealed to all ages. “It’s very simple, very smart because it all emanates from the product and at the same time projects a different feel for Chevrolet.”
Crabb took part in filming the ad in New York and made sure that it didn’t stray much from her original vision. She also said that she’s very interested in film and hopes to pursue it one day. Aside from the ad, the automaker is also getting publicity from the contest itself. It has partnered with CBS to show the “Webisodes” online of the contest and the finalists making their pitches in Detroit. Likewise, viewers of CBS’s “The Early Show” were also asked to vote for their favorite ad submissions online. Voting has ended last January.
Crabb was announced the winner of the contest. Official announcement will be made during the CBS’s airing of “Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials”. The 19-year old Crabb was also offered a full-time job at the Campbell-Ewald, a unit of Interpublic Group of Cos, Inc. which handles all of Chevrolet’s advertising.
About the Author: Noah Scott is a 30 year old native of New Jersey, writer, and car fan - having grown up with both parents being auto enthusiasts. He works for an automotive consultancy firm and regularly contributes articles to car magazines.
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