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PR vs. WOM

I think we can say that the Oprah Winfrey Pontiac G6 Giveaway worked for Oprah but not Pontiac.

There is alot of hubbub over a Detroit Free Press article today that says G6 sales are 30% below expectations and they are using a lot of incentives to move them now. It must have made the wire services because I heard the story on the radio this morning.

The giveaway was PR that GM hoped with turn into word of mouth marketing. It got people talking about how Oprah gave away cars (Jim Carrey joked about it when he was on the show). It really didn't get anyone talking about the car. As a matter of fact, an audience member tried selling theirs on craigslist.

Update: Brand Autopsy also has a post on this too.

March 23, 2005 in Marketing, Public Relations |

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» When Marketing Doesn't Work from Fast Cars
When Oprah gave away all those Pontiacs, GM was hoping for word of mouth to help sell their G6s. Instead, they got more people watching Oprah while the G6s sit on the lot. Maybe GM just needs more fast cars. [Read More]

Tracked on March 25, 2005 at 03:39 AM

Comments

It WAS/IS great PR. But the greatest PR in the world will never help a bad product succeed. A lot of folks are talking about this right now and trying to lay blame on Oprah. She did her part. It was/is the car that is at issue.

Posted by: Kevin Dugan | March 24, 2005 at 09:50 PM

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