To promote its new Macan SUV, Porsche Canada is going the content marketing route and hoping to reach a younger demo with a four-part online series in which the Macan plays only a supporting role until the final act.
Porsche created the global Macan Hub microsite and encouraged regional agencies to create their own content. Toronto-based Yield Branding opted to produce the vignettes around three different Canadians who would represent an aspect of the Porsche brand, then a fourth where they all get to test-drive the Macan.
The first of the series stars Phil White, co-founder of Canadian high-end bicycle manufacturer Cervélo, who represents Porsche’s emphasis on design, pure engineering and driving pleasure (and will perhaps appeal to the 35-45 urban demo it’s aiming at).
“Riding in itself is a really, really cathartic experience,” says the video’s voiceover. “It’s that man-machine symbiosis that you get where you’re really at one with your machine and you feel it.”
Yield’s creative director, Chris Torbay, says that with a well-known brand such as Porsche, there is a lot of leeway to do ads that are less dense with information about the product.
“Rather than doing straight-up sales-style material, we wanted to do something that was more of a human interest piece, but allowed the parallels between the Cervélo and the Macan to be there,” says Torbay. “A lot of people have always had the dream of a Porsche, so you don’t have to market it to them the way you would a tube of toothpaste.”
Well, not some mid-range toothpaste, in any case. The series’ next videos will feature Montreal DJ Misstress Barbara, who is meant to stand for the car’s urban style and sophistication, and then John Keogh, the coach of the Rowing Canada women’s team, who stands for performance, power, strength and determination. Each film is meant to underscore the campaign tagline: Life, intensified.
“It’s not about the features of the car, it’s about those values,” says Torbay. The fourth video will feature the three subjects taking the Macan for a spin at the ICAR race track in Montreal.
The series will be among the last Yield does for the luxury automaker, which became its first-ever Canadian agency of record five years ago when the brand decided to delineate its marketing in Canada. Red Urban will be taking the reins as AOR, following Porsche’s agency review earlier this year that saw it align its Canadian presence with its global parent, the Volkswagen Group. Volkswagen has Red Urban as its Canadian agency.
