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Chevy Sonic Integrated

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the rundown

How do you get Chevy from “Not for me” to “F—k I want one” (YouTube comment about Chevy Sonic)? First-time car buyers saw Chevy as synonymous with gas-guzzling trucks—irrelevant and out of touch. To get Chevy back into the conversation, we couldn’t talk about gas mileage and safety ratings. To truly change buyers’ perception, the Sonic launch had to be about actions, not ads. So we partnered with rock stars, extreme athletes and robot experts to create a series of awe-inspiring, 100%-real Sonic firsts that captured the attention and imagination of our audience.

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The Building Blocks

The first car launched by the Internet. Literally: to launch Sonic, we put it atop a 100-foot platform and asked the Internet to push it off—the first digital launch in Chevrolet’s 100-year history. Next, people could check out the Sonic while it was free-falling from 14,000 feet and change camera angles on the fly. We also created the world’s first playable 3D projection—the World’s Largest Claw Game—and built a street-art Sonic with an iPad-controlled robotic spray-paint arm. Every Sonic First used a combination of online film, interactive OOH and digital events to hook and engage Millennials.

The Votes

The Details

Agency
Brand
Chevrolet
Launch Date
Oct. 15, 2011

The Team

  • Goodby Silverstein & Partners www.goodbysilverstein.com/
  • Jeff Goodby, Co-Chairman
  • Jamie Barrett, Executive Creative Director
  • Hunter Hindman, Executive Creative Director
  • Joakim Borgstrom, Creative Director
  • Niklas Lilja, Associate Creative Director
  • Andrew Bancroft, Associate Creative Director
  • Trey Tyler, Copywriter
  • Damian Fitzgerald, Copywriter
  • Hanna Wittmark, Copywriter
  • Susan Land, Art Director
  • Javier Torok, Art Director
  • David Byrd, Art Director
  • Azin Ashourvan, Art Director
  • Brian Perkins, Director
  • Todd Porter, Agency Music Supervisor
  • Hilary Coate, Executive Producer
  • Dan Watson, Senior Producer
  • Jim Vaughan, Senior Producer
  • Ryan Wilson, Assistant Producer
  • Alex Burke, Executive Interactive Producer
  • Eric Shamlin, Senior Interactive Producer
  • Andrew Lee, Interactive Producer
  • Slim Pictures slim-pictures.com/
  • Motion Theory www.motiontheory.com/contact/
  • Superstudio www.superstudio.tv/
  • Pearl Media www.pearlmediaproductions.com/
  • Beast Editorial www.beast.tv/
  • Stopp-LA www.stopp-la.com/
  • Caviar www.caviarcontent.com/
  • Chevrolet
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The Stats

  • 120 million viral video views
  • #1 most viewed video on YouTube after the Super Bowl (OK Go music video)
  • 285K Facebook “Likes,” more than any other car in the category

The Results

Sonic helped GM end 2011 as the category leader in new-car sales. It shifted Millennial perceptions of Chevy from being out-of-touch to youthful and relevant. They now rank Sonic higher on awesome attributes, like “Youthful” and “Proud to Own”. “When did Chevy get so cool?” (Youtube comment)—looks like throwing a car out of a plane does sell cars.

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