$17 million to spruik new Holden ute

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$17 million to spruik new Holden ute
Joshua Dowling
June 12, 2012 - 10:47AM

Holden will spend record amount advertising all-new Colorado.

It seems no Australian will be allowed to miss the arrival of the new Holden Colorado ute – the maker’s first all-new one-tonne ute in 10 years, on sale today after months of delays.

Holden has told dealers it will spend up to $17 million on an advertising blitz to sell a shipment of 20,000 Colorados in the next six months – twice the normal selling rate for the vehicle.

The Colorado figure is said to be more than double what Holden spent promoting the new Commodore when it launched in 2006 – and almost half the estimated $40 million Holden typically spends in a calendar year.

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To put the $17 million figure into perspective with competitors, that’s as much as some brands spend across their entire line-up over a year.

According to research company AC Nielsen, which monitors advertising expenditure, Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler spent $17 million over the previous 12 months and Suzuki spent $16 million over the same period.

Last month, Holden’s executive director of sales and marketing, John Elsworth, would not confirm the Colorado’s advertising spend but told Drive: “I’m not going to comment on whether or not it’s more than [Commodore’s ad spend] but it’s an appropriate amount to promote the vehicle. We haven’t launched a new pick-up in more than 10 years.”

Holden has been advertising the Colorado in the months leading up to this week’s launch, even though it hasn’t had any vehicles to sell because of production delays caused by floods in Thailand late last year.

Holden says it is already holding orders for 1500 Colorados before the first sale-able vehicles arrive in dealerships.

“We have a lot of pre-ordered cars,” Elsworth told Drive last month. “Our priority now is to get them into customers’ hands as quickly as possible.”

Spending $17 million to sell 20,000 Colorados translates to about $850 per car to cover the cost of the advertising. However, the expenditure won’t be directly linked to each Colorado sale as it will go towards the ongoing “image-building” of the vehicle.

Holden is still establishing the Colorado nameplate after losing the rights to the Rodeo badge it had used for its workhorse since 1978.

In 2008, the long-standing co-operation between Isuzu and General Motors soured as Isuzu introduced its version of the Rodeo in Australia and called it the D-Max.

Holden was not allowed to continue to use the Rodeo name as the rights to it were owned by Isuzu, so Holden switched to the international name for General Motors’ compact pick-up: Colorado.

Despite the strained relationship, the new-generation Colorado was jointly developed with Isuzu and General Motors but the vehicles have more differentiation than before.

The Isuzu D-Max, which launches next month, is powered by a 3.0-litre turbo diesel and comes with six airbags, whereas the Holden Colorado has a choice of 2.5- and 2.8-litre turbo diesel engines and comes with four airbags.

The Holden Colorado 2.8, however, has class-leading towing capacity of 3500kg, the car makers says. The nearest rival is the Mazda BT-50 at 3350kg.

Despite the airbag deficit (most new pick-up rivals have six airbags, the Colorado has four) Holden is expected to announce a five-star ANCAP safety rating with the new model.

http://news.drive.com.au/drive/motor...612-206ms.html
my comment And FORD's spending on the Falcon ?????????????????