Part 3: Creative Slamdown: Hear how great creatives successfully sell mundane, inane or boring...
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The Lincoln Blackwood “Probably the most ridiculous thing Lincoln has ever done.”
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Transcript of Part 3: Creative Slamdown: Hear how great creatives successfully sell mundane, inane or boring...
The Lincoln Blackwood
“Probably the most ridiculous thing Lincoln has ever done.”
“Probably the most ridiculous thing Lincoln has ever done.”
“Luxury Utility Vehicle”
• With only one new vehicle in 26 years, Lincoln wanted to shake off the perception that it was “old school”, “boring” and “stuck in the 60s”.
• Blackwood made a dramatic statement; a specialty vehicle promoted almost entirely through direct marketing.– Limited edition
– Narrow audience
There were just 3 problems...
Wrong vehicle
• Blackwood was a triumph of over-the-top style vs. substance.
• Conceived of in the late 1990s, when investors sought out conspicuous displays their new-found stock market wealth.
• Delivered after the dot.com bubble burst – 1 month after 9/11.
Wrong concept Wrong time
Conceived Conceived
Product challenges
• Genuinely expensive: $53,000• A shockingly eco-unfriendly 13 mpg (17 highway)• One color choice: black• No 4 wheel-drive• Unusable truck bed• “Gorgeous, in the way that Las Vegas honeymoon suites
and Elvis's jumpsuits are gorgeous”
“Viva Las Vegas”:A Pickup for Elvis”
– The New York Times
“So perverted by style and luxury that it cannot even carry the occasional lawnmower or sheet of plywood.”
“You have to have money to burn to buy this. This is just an expensive toy.”
Our positioning:
A toy for rich boys
Prospect hand-out
Prospect hand-out
Prospect hand-out
Blackwood Debut
Blackwood Microsite
Blackwood Microsite
Blackwood Microsite
Blackwood Microsite
Press not so great? Let’s create our own!
Sponsor the U.S. Open
How to find well-healed prospects?
$8,000 crystal Mr. Potato Head $10 million Zeppelin
Where could we find the splurging super rich?
50 Neiman-Marcus edition Blackwoods were offered at $58,000 each.
They sold out in 8 hours.
But for the rest of our prospects, Blackwood’s shortcomings were a real hurdle.
Blasé brand
Poor price-value
Disco design
Lacks basic features
The press laughing at us
Really, what else could go wrong?
January 3, 2001
Blackwood Reports Production Delay
Claycomo, MO Originally expected to be on sale by the fall of 2000, then delayed until the first quarter of 2001, it now appears Blackwood customers may not take delivery until the second quarter of 2001.
“Here At Last” mailer
Dealer training video
Could direct marketing save a vehicle so severely flawed in design, value,
functionality, and timing as Blackwood?
No. Production was cancelled after just one year.
What did we accomplish?
• Attracted 59,300 prospects
• Sold 3,356 vehicles at dealerships– Brought in $17,786,000 in revenue
• Sold 50 Neiman-Marcus units in 8 hours – $2.9 million in sales from 1 product running 1 time in 1 catalog!
• Helped ensure the Lincoln brand will never again be perceived of as “boring”
Many thanks to Steve Luftman, Blackwood Art Director,
and the rest of the Y&R team
