At the end of January, Honda released “phase two” of its Prologue launch. It’s an extension of a broader Honda campaign called “Keep Dreaming,” Laudermilk explained, which includes a general market spot, a Hispanic spot and an Asian-American spot.
But beyond that central creative, there’s also tailored out-of-home and digital messaging that targets specific ZIP codes and audiences that Honda has identified as “BEV [battery electric vehicle] intenders,” Laudermilk added.
Paired with dealer training and a dedicated customer-support staff able to answer questions through the automaker’s website in real-time, Honda aims to put into practice some of the lessons that its earlier-to-market competitors learned over the past few years.
Marketing could fill knowledge gaps
In a presentation at e-mobility festival Electrify Expo in Austin, Texas, last fall, EV market analyst Loren McDonald highlighted a series of dos and don’ts for automakers as they market EVs.
Shoppers need fewer celebrity-filled spots, he argued, showing a screengrab of Will Ferrell in GM’s 2021 Super Bowl ad.
Instead, people need more education-focused marketing that answers their practical questions, along with opportunities to test drive the cars. They need to understand how the tech would fit into their lives, McDonald, CEO of EVAdoption, explained.
For Teske and McDonald, a major missing link is understanding electricity as a fuel that people already trust. Rather than a liquid that starts full and goes until empty, EVs are more like a phone battery—you plug it in when you’re doing other things anyway, like sleeping, shopping or eating at a restaurant. It just requires a different routine.
“[Automakers are] rinsing and repeating what they’ve been doing the past 50 years,” McDonald said, “which is buying TV ads and doing cool, fun stuff, but not understanding that people don’t even know what EVs are.”
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