Chevy Made An Ad About Female Truckers That Every Driver Should Love
Chevrolet AdAs Chevrolet unrolls its new campaign for the 2014 Silverado, a lot of the effort has been dedicated to showing the deep bond between "a man and his truck."
But Chevy is also trying go beyond the stereotype of the burly cowboy and his big, American-made pickup and go to another underrepresented demographic: The female truck-lover.
"If you look at the market, about 11% of the truck population is women," Maria Rohrer, director of marketing & strategy for Chevrolet truck, told Business Insider. "With as large a segment as this, that's not an insignificant number."
So Chevy's latest ad has an unexpected star, a female rodeo competitor who tows her 1200-pound horse on her truck. (Watch below.)
"One thing that is nice about this ad is not only that it is the woman in there, but a woman who is tough enough to tow her own big trailer," Rohrer said. "60% of our target tows, this is her passion point. And the fact that the woman is strong enough to hook it up on her own says a lot."
What really makes the spot work is that the spot would work regardless of its protagonist's gender. Chevrolet hasn't fallen into easy trappings of marketing the car to a specifically female audience — along the lines of the infamously ridiculed "Bic for Her" pens or the pink Honda "She's" car, complete with a windshield wiper that somehow helps "prevent" wrinkles — but for all interested buyers.
"I don't think we were specifically thinking of staying away from stereotypes as we were looking to tell a story that everyone could relate to," Rohrer said.
And this cinematic story tells about the journey of a woman who's determined to take home "a ribbon that goes on her wall and not in her hair."
Emma Bazilian at Adweek added that this protagonist "should totally date the guy from Budweiser's 'Brotherhood' Super Bowl spot" who is devoted to his Clydesdale.
Although Rohrer thinks that the "Her Horse" protagonist would be hard to chase, "She seems like the strong, silent type."
Leo Burnett is putting the finishing touches on the other ads in the campaign, which will tell a range of other stories about the Silverado driver.