Good morning. Jaguar revealed its long-promised, new-era EV last night and... it's not pink.
That was one of the key takeaways from a preview event and launch party that the WSJ Leadership Institute's Katie Deighton attended in New York on Tuesday. This is the vehicle, after all, that Jaguar teased in 2024 with an avant-garde promo video that showed models striding around a fuchsia landscape-and followed up with a concept car in pink and bright blue varieties.
Some brand loyalists recoiled. President Trump later called the video "disgraceful."
The actual showroom-ready Type 01 that Jaguar showed off nearly two years after that first brand film is silver, with an "orchid white" interior. And the first ad for it returns to familiar tropes of auto advertising, with a handsome driver, wet pavement and the cars on the road.
The quirky 2024 video was "trying to herald the new design language and the new direction that Jaguar was going in," said Rawdon Glover, Jaguar's managing director. "This is a production car that's in the real world that real people want to buy, and putting it in a context that felt more grounded felt very important."
I asked Katie about the seeming swerve.
Jaguar executive Rawdon Glover told you that the brand's 2024 teaser video and concept car were just meant to establish a "conceptual world." Will it be hard for Jaguar to make the turn from its famously out-there announcements in 2024 to real-world car sales now?
Katie: I predict they'll be able to move into this new era fairly easily because I imagine the average consumer doesn't remember much about that 2024 campaign, outside the fact it was pink and a little bit weird. Much like the Bud Light Dylan Mulvaney fiasco, the original video was only meant to live for a brief moment online-it wasn't playing on cable TV or anything-and was only amplified by outrage and the fact there wasn't a car in it to talk about. Now they have a car and, judging by the comments on our story so far, it's that which people now want to obsess over, not the branding.
You were at the launch party last night. How would you rate the event, on a scale from 1 for avant-garde to 10 for traditional car types?
Katie: I'd give it a 2 for the beautiful, tiny sashimi that was prepared live on the floor for approximately 15 minutes. The rest-the models, the step and repeats, the Veuve Clicquot, the British motoring journalists complaining about the size of said sashimi-felt like a solid, traditional 9.
The Infinity Loop
Every CMO has faced a colleague who assumes marketing amounts to the party planning committee.
When Melody Lee took over as CMO of Mercedes-Benz USA, she realized some people at the company thought her team was just "good at picking out cocktail napkins and arranging flowers." She dismantled the stereotype by showing them the science of what she does.
Lee turned the concept of the marketing funnel into "an infinity loop" for colleagues, she recalled yesterday during a conversation with CMO Council members, and plotted her department's work onto "that infinity loop that goes from the path to purchase to the path to passion and back and forth."
For the first time, Lee told CMO Council Chair Maryam Banikarim, "I saw lightbulbs go off like, 'Oh, wow, marketing's actually part of the entire journey in a really meaningful way.'"
A prime example of that work is the loyalty group called Silver Arrows, whose members might be invited to Monaco to see Formula One in action or receive access to a new model that nobody else will get for months. How exclusive is the program? Lee said the member roster in the U.S. is under 200 people.
Lee is meanwhile seeking future customers by capitalizing on the growth of motor sports among an unexpected audience: Gen Alpha and Gen Z women. Some people have suggested "it's because the drivers are young and cute," according to Lee.
But "women are not that simple," she said. "Let's not be that reductive."
See more of Lee's CMO Council Exchange here.
The Magic Number
20%
Approximate amount that (Porsche) plans to raise average prices for its top-end models to boost exclusivity and profits.
Quotable
"There's nothing wrong with being a heritage brand." Dana Medema, Revlon's president of North America, at Advertising Week New York. Revlon is trying to make its 87-year history an asset with consumers while simultaneously updating its appeal.
The WSJ CMO Council Summit
This Nov. 17 and 18, CMOs will gather in New York for the WSJ Leadership Institute's CMO Council Summit, featuring marketing leaders such as FUBU founder Daymond John, Visa's Frank Cooper III, Mars Inc.'s Gülen Bengi, IBM's Jonathan Adashek, United Airlines' Josh Earnest, PepsiCo's Mark Kirkham, e.l.f. Beauty's Oshiya Savur, and the National Women's Soccer League's Rachel Epstein.
Together, they'll explore the power of participation in cultural events, social platforms, professional communities and anywhere that passionate consumers gather.
Join the WSJ CMO Council and be part of the conversation shaping the future of marketing leadership.
Inquire about membership
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