Car manufacturers choice of ''brand ambassadors''

lordnoah

I have been thinking lately, why do customers have to foot the bill for car brands to take 'Z list' brand ambassadors on board? There are some ridiculous cases of this happening in Ireland at the moment. Of course every brand has a marketing budget but its annoying seeing some people being used to promote a brand.

Volkswagen seem to be the biggest culprit of this at the moment. For example why are Rosanna Davison, Pippa O'Connor and Brian Ormond (!) driving around in free VW cars as brand ambassadors? It would actually strongly turn me off the brand.

Other (less annoying examples IMO) include Rob Kearney (Audi), Leo Cullen (Volkswagen, again) and Amy Huberman (Range Rover).

colm_mcm

Renault use Ian Dempsey, Lorraine Keane, keith Barry and Paralympic rower Mark Rohan



Toyota have Katie Taylor (and the gardai!)


Kia have Alan Partridge


Ford supply The Lord Mayor of Cork, and Volvo looks after the mayor of Dublin

Peugeot use rally driver Craig Breen

numorouno

audi use Paul Galvin

_Kaiser_

Can't say it's something I've ever thought about myself although truth be told 99.9% of "celebs" could be in front of me and I wouldn't have a clue who they were.

mickdw

lordnoah wrote: »

I have been thinking lately, why do customers have to foot the bill for car brands to take 'Z list' brand ambassadors on board? There are some ridiculous cases of this happening in Ireland at the moment. Of course every brand has a marketing budget but its annoying seeing some people being used to promote a brand.

Volkswagen seem to be the biggest culprit of this at the moment. For example why are Rosanna Davison, Pippa O'Connor and Brian Ormond (!) driving around in free VW cars as brand ambassadors? It would actually strongly turn me off the brand.

Other (less annoying examples IMO) include Rob Kearney (Audi), Leo Cullen (Volkswagen, again) and Amy Huberman (Range Rover).

Katherine Thomas in an audi also but to be fair they do get a fair bit of promotional stuff out of her at least between photo shoots and hosting audi dealer events.

No Pants

I know what you mean OP, branding can be a double-edged sword, especially is the celebrity in question misbehaves. For years I wouldn't have anything to do with Vodafone because of Michael Schumacher and Manchester United.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

It must help their sales in some way, shape or form. A couple of the Kerry players down here are sponsored with cars, Paul Galvin in an A6 and I saw Kieran Donaghy in a Hyundai i40 I think it was before.

I'm not sure how much more credibility an Audi A6 needs, but Paul Galvin in particular, is a stylish guy who is very active on Twitter. You can bet your bottom dollar it influences some young guys who admire him.

mickdw

Feckin Hector also has an audi from audi galway.
Can't see him helping the brand much.

_Kaiser_

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

I'm not sure how much more credibility an Audi A6 needs, but Paul Galvin in particular, is a stylish guy who is very active on Twitter. You can bet your bottom dollar it influences some young guys who admire him.

I've no idea who Paul Galvin is but your average twitter-aware/obsessed young guy won't be buying an A6 surely? I'd imagine those are more aimed at my age group (late 30s+)

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

I've no idea who Paul Galvin is but your average twitter-aware/obsessed young guy won't be buying an A6 surely? I'd imagine those are more aimed at my age group (late 30s+)

No, not twitter obsessed spotty 16 year olds. By 'young guys' I actually meant guys in their 30s and on. Don't be so hard on yourself, you're still young!

P.S. Paul Galvin plays football for Kerry and would be one of the better known GAA players in the country.

lordnoah

I can understand the use of some people as brand ambassadors. But its the type and quantity of brand ambassadors which annoy me. How many times have Audi and VW been mentioned already?

I can understand a brand ambassador being used on a worldwide scale e.g. Roger Federer used by Mercedes worldwide. But for a country the size of Ireland with such a small new car market, it seems ridiculous. Is it a case of the car managers getting free cars for their buddies? I know that has happened in some cases.

No Pants

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

P.S. Paul Galvin plays football for Kerry and would be one of the better known GAA players in the country.

You left out his interest in fashion.

Ginny

VW supply a crap load of cars to the Leinster team, and yes they got 131 and 132 regs last year. Some of the stand alone in the team are Bod for Lexus, Rob Kearney for Audi, Ian Madigan for Citroen, Sean O'brien for Kia and Heaslip for Land rover.

BMJD

nothing says "underachieving sports personality" like driving a Kia

biko

If I was a celeb A) I wouldn't choose any of those cars and no way I'd drive a car that has a sign on the side "biko is driving this car".

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

It must help their sales in some way, shape or form.

Exactly, marketing isn't something done on a whim. Every move is planned and results measured.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

I'm not sure how much more credibility an Audi A6 needs, but Paul Galvin in particular, is a stylish guy who is very active on Twitter. You can bet your bottom dollar it influences some young guys who admire him.

This is why sport celebs are paid so much by companies. They make well-paid young men buy certain products over others.

pajero12

BMJD wrote: »

nothing says "underachieving sports personality" like driving a Kia

Sean O'Brien?
Anyone who knows anything about rugby would disagree

BMJD

I guess I'm just an anti-hero :pac:

bs2014

The reason alot of the brand ambassadors are deemed z lists is because, due to Ireland's small size we don't have a major pool of celebrities. In reality, alot of "very famous" irish celebs are else living and working abroad 99% of the time or else so rich that they would rather buy their own supercar, eg a ferrari or something so expensive/niche that an importer couldn't justify the car or be able to sell it on through a dealer.

One must bare in mind, these people aren't just given cars and let do what they want. Much is the case the importer, offsets the depreciation of the car over the time frame against other benefits. These might include rugby players visiting dealership events, €x value of marketing material at the side of football pitches, x number of adverts on the radio, depending on the context of the celebrity.

Furthermore, having brand ambassadors are a way of getting a brand recognised, it is quite difficult to measure the value of the brand ambassadors in tangible terms, but if one didn't have them, the brand would drift away and forgotten about. Hense, the lack of brand ambassadors in brands like FIAT and Opel and hense their falling market shares. I know this isnt a direct link but it must have some connection.

BlatentCheek

Sure, if someone else gets a free car far play to them.

You can say the customer subsidises it but in reality no car manufacturer that stopped giving free cars to brand ambassadors would reflect the savings in their prices.