Advertising Age's Detroit Bureau Chief Jean Halliday interviews Mark-Hans Richer, director of marketing, Pontiac Division of General Motors, about the company's interactive future.

Pontiac is a brand on the upswing, fighting against significant forces in the auto industry; a rare domestic brand that, according to the company, is growing its sales double digits in top coastal markets, taking share from imports, and renewing its youthful brand identity. It's doing this with a collection of innovative, award-winning marketing strategies, many of which have been in the interactive space.

In 2004, Pontiac won the ad:tech award for best search strategy with its Oprah/G6 promotion, and followed it up in 2006 by becoming the first marketer to ever use its TV ads to drive search through its Google Pontiac campaign. Pontiac also won Promo Magazine's Interactive Promo of the Year in 2005 for a G6 promotion leveraging camera phones and SMS. Pontiac has become the first auto brand to move a launch entirely to the web as it currently launches the G5 without a single national TV ad, which has been doubling its sales projections.

During this session, Advertising Age's Jean Halliday asks Pontiac's Mark-Hans Richer to discuss the company's new standards and interactive marketing future. 

Bios:
Mark-Hans Richer was named director of marketing for Pontiac in April 2004, adding marketing responsibilities for the division to his previous role as director of Pontiac advertising and sales promotion. During his tenure at Pontiac, Richer has led a number of highly successful marketing efforts that have been recognized both nationally and globally. He was recognized as one of Ad Age's "Marketing 50" for 2004. Pontiac was awarded a Cannes Gold Lion in both 2005 and 2006, and has also been recently presented with two Gold Effies and the 2006 PMA Super Reggie for Best Overall Promotion. Beginning in 2000 prior to his current assignment, Richer served as advertising director for GMC, where he launched the successful GMC "Professional Grade" campaign that still continues today. 

Jean Halliday has covered automotive advertising for 12 years, first as Detroit bureau chief of AdWeek and then joining Advertising Age in 1996 in the same capacity. A native of Long Island, New York and graduate of Rider College in Lawrenceville, N.J., Halliday started her journalism career at ABC Radio in Detroit at WXYZ and moved to print as a staff reporter at Crain's Detroit Business.

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Speaker(s): Jean Halliday, Detroit Bureau Chief, Advertising Age

Format: 00:30:07, 27.5 MB, MP3