July 3, 2019 • 43 mins
This week Bob interviews Olivier Francois, the legendary CMO of Fiat Chrysler. Learn why Eminem volunteered to put himself in Olivier’s commercial, how coming up with a soundtrack for every brand helps Olivier shape his vision, and why a little cultural ignorance has helped him push the boundaries of advertising. Plus, hear the surprising backstory behind that incredible tagline: “Imported from Detroit.”
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Math and Magic, a production of I
Heart Radio. A brand is always more than a display
off product, and this is something most of your makers
have forgotten. You know, a branch should be a statement,
It should be a persona. It should come with a purpose,
and it should be a promise. Then when you have
(00:24):
all that, then and only then, the single products become
a family. In the family becomes a brand. I'm Bob Pittman,
and welcome to Math and Magic. Stories from the Frontiers
of Marketing. We explore the analytical and the creative. And
today we have a Frenchman who works for an Italian
(00:46):
company and lives in Detroit. That in itself is probably
a podcast. Olivier Francois is the CMO of Fiat Chrysler
and the originator of one of the best repositioning marketing
lines I've ever heard, imported from Detroit. He's the creative
force behind those iconic ads that featured legends from eminem
(01:09):
to Clint Eastwood to Bob Dylan, and they have even
remarketed Detroit making a cool and vibrant again. Olivia speaks
at least three languages. He's a published poet, he's had
his own music company, still uses that skill as a
competitive advantage in business. He even had an export business
that included jams and skis. He has a life that
spans continents and ideas that span genres. He has a
(01:32):
great story about how he made the jump to the
card business, which we'll get to. I met Olivier in
Turin because I could never get in to see him
in Detroit, so I decided to stop and see him there.
He has offices everywhere, always on the go, so we
have a lot to discuss today. Welcome Olivier, Thank you
for having me. Well, we're delighted to have you. And
before we get into all the meaty stuff, we have
a little feature we start with, which is called you
(01:54):
in sixty seconds. This is gonna be rapid fire questions.
Don't think about it, just give us your answer. Vanilla
or chocolate, which do you prefer? There is no need
to choose, says a mix in Italy. It's called Strachatella
delicious France or Italy Italy because they invented stra New
York City or l A City, Detroit, Detroit or Turan.
I want to say, actually Miami, Okay, Motown or Hip
(02:17):
hop definitely Motown, but Hey is a son of Motown,
so there's two things have come together nicely. No power
boats or sailboats. Sailboats are solar power boats. Maybe zoo
Lander or Ron Burgundy, Round Burgundy da Vinci or Gala
Leo da Vinci. You know why because he was Italian
but spent most of his life in France, So double culture.
I can definitely relate to this. Imported from Detroit or
(02:41):
halftime in America. Important to America like me, it's about
to get harder. What secret tality you have, boy maker?
Have four boys? Favorite European city Venice, It's on the water.
I love it. Favorite American city Miami, it's on the water.
I love it. Favorite poet. So I'm hesitating between Bodle,
Shakespeare and Eminem, but we'll say Lare because I'm French.
(03:01):
Favorite artist. Oh okay, that's a chance to say Eminem. Then,
most prestigious award you've ever received, the high school diploma.
That was a pure miracle at the time. Historical idol,
I hate idols. No idols. If you could have one superpower,
what would it be? Get rid of the French accents
who would play you in a movie. I have no clue.
Proudest achievement marrying my wife Arianna and keep making her happy.
(03:24):
What's one food you'd never eat? I eat everything, spoken
like a true Italian Frenchman, a detroitter. Let's jump for
a few minutes to your big inspirational moments here at
I Heart. We have a wildly popular podcast with Ron Burgundy,
and you had a wildly successful ad campaign with Ron
Burgundy as well. Where did that come from? This comes
(03:46):
from the idea that I say, what makes a big
difference in marketing is authenticity. So what we always try
to do is align our brand, it's ethos, personality with
someone who embodies exactly a say, set of values. And
that was very much eminem and cross in that moment. Obviously,
to just use an example, Ron Burgundy was incredibly what
(04:09):
I wanted to do with Dodge at the time. Not
will fail. Literally the character we saw it was very irreverent.
It embodied exactly the personality of Dodge as I saw
it at the time. How did you put that together?
So you have this idea, did you say, wow, Ryan
Burgundy is it? Or did someone tell you about Ryan Burgundy? No,
someone told you My body, Tim Karniskis. I mean, there's
(04:31):
an element of American cultures that obviously do not have.
So this is a handicap. At the same time, it's
a blessing because obviously I'm open to everything, and I
have developed some antennas, you know, that allow me to understand,
to smell, to feel what's good, what's maybe not that good,
And in this case, I thought that that could be
something very innovative. You mentioned Zoolander. We also did a
(04:54):
Fiat campaign with Ben Steeler. It was not Ben Steeler
obviously embodying Fiat, it was their Exulander. This was an
amazing commercial. Actually it ran in the whole world. And
the beauty here is it's all about a partnership. So
these guys have a movie they want to promote, you know,
think of Fast and Furious and Vin Diesel, same story.
You know, they want to promote the movie. Generally, they
(05:16):
are producers of their own movie. So obviously there's some
interest in having a media partner. So I hire the character,
not the actor. The character. We developed a commercial. Hey,
in some cases, I think that the campaign was better
than the movie. I won't bring any name, but I
think that in some of these cases, the campaign was
(05:38):
probably almost overpromising. So you bring run Burgundy, end, this
is going to be your campaign. You tell people internally
in the company, I have this great idea, run Burgundy.
The people go brilliant or they go while that's risky. No,
I didn't tell anyone in the company. We just do it.
So that's the empowerment we have. F c A is
all about leadership, and lead ship is about taking your
(06:01):
responsibilities and obviously about accountability. If it fails, it is
your own failure. So the day I understood that it
was probably not a great idea to share ideas in advance,
was actually this important from Detroit idea Where I shared it.
It was almost my very first campaign, and I was
(06:21):
not totally sure, and clearly the advice were not positive.
You know, don't bring up Detroit. Detroit is not liked.
People don't connect with Detroit. That your feminism eminem is
probably a little bit controversial, and blah blah. The only
thing these advisors didn't think of telling me is that
(06:42):
you could not do a two minute Super Bowl commercial.
So the first part of the advice I luckily ignored.
It was probably not a bad advice it just turned
out not being what people were afraid of, you know,
math beach magic, Yes, exactly, part to predict the magic
talk about imported from Detroit, which I'm a marketer at
(07:02):
hard and it's one of the greatest lines I've ever heard.
Where did that line come from? So that line came
totally incidentally from a speech I came from Fiat and
I was called by our late boss, Surgeon Match to
lead Chrysler, and I was leading another European car maker there.
(07:22):
So we said, hey, come over, I need you for Crysser.
And the first thing we did we had to bring
new models. So um, the shortest time to market we
could think of was to take the old Sea Bring
that was not the greatest car. We had to be
totally fair fix it makes some things that would really
match the level of qualities we wanted for Crossers. So
(07:45):
we fixed the quality, we fixed the design. Yet it
was not a brand new car. It was a facelift,
so we named it Crossed two hundreds, which was almost
a bit overstating the newness of the car. And then
the slow that we had to launch a car was
l A. The l A Auto Show Detroit was a
(08:05):
bit too far ahead. LA seemed perfect. Obviously I was
so terribly ignorant of all things America. I am still ignorant,
but then it was really pathetic. So one thing I
didn't know is that the l A Auto Show is
literally the Imports Detroit. I mean, it is really where
(08:26):
you celebrate Japanese cars, German cars, maybe Italian cars by
the way, but for sure not a Crassler. So too late,
I'm on stage presenting my new baby. And that was
obviously one of the most important moments in my life,
because this was a question of life or death for
the whole company and not just for me. And when
(08:47):
I realized that l A is home of the imports,
the respect quality design and more importantly fuel efficiency. And
at the time, back in two thousand and ten eleven,
I mean, the design, we were making progress. Quality, as
I just said, we were making big strides. Fuel efficiency
(09:08):
not so much. But the Cross the two hundred had
something to say, so I just instinctively pitched it. I
made this up on stage. I say, hey, I know
that you guys like imports and we are in l A.
So look at this car like imported from Detroit. It
was just my ending and actually a couple of people
came and said that's would be a good line for
a not and then I thought of it, you know,
(09:29):
and I said, yeah, that's a good life for a not.
Then clearly the soundtrack came. I have four kids, two
of which at the time were very much into hip
hop and introduced me to Eminem, And obviously when we
started thinking of Detroit, obviously that tune came to mind.
When you have one chance, one opportunity that totally connects
together Crosser Detroit and all of America. So I was
(09:55):
obsessed with securing that song, which ended up being an endeavor,
says the least. Once I had the song, Eminem was
so intwigued. You know, it was never scripted to be
in the commercial. It was just kind of probably in
twigued at the same time, may be a bit scared
by rightfully, so you know, what are these advertisers going
(10:16):
to do with my song? I promised him that would
be probably more largely about Detroit than just about a
car for sure, or even the brand. But he came
on set and then it just magic happened. So from
six hundred cars promounts to six thousand after the commercial
(10:36):
that math aspect and and the magic is what happened
in the whole country because obviously the commercial resonated with
more than just Detroit, with more than just car guys.
It resonated as a message of pride for all of America.
What was detroit reaction to at the whole community? I
(10:56):
know that a town of cars, it's the motor city.
Had they feel about it? They felt incredible. I mean
it was really our love declaration to our hometown. But really, again,
as I said before, it went above and beyond Detroit,
because all of America that didn't like very much Detroit
(11:18):
in that moment, I mean, they didn't like the mosest city.
People were very suspicious when it came to Detroit and
when it came to all these bankruptcies. But there was
a spirit, there was a mindset, in an attitude in
that commercial, and that's very largely due to Eminem and
to his music. The images were pretty good there, and
the images were very good to look very cool. It
(11:40):
made Detroit look very cool. And it's a mix of
images that some we captured that day, some we had captured.
I mean that was something we totally made up. We
were not even sure that we would even air a
Super Bowl commercial. We were a bailout company, and my
boss and our management and to the last moment, we're
(12:01):
assessing whether airing a big commercial during a Super Bowl
was a good thing or a bad thing. Would there
be a backlash? We had secured I sink in ninety seconds,
but that thing was just magical and beautiful as a
two minutes. So we also had to buy the extra
so a second convince the NFL to innovate because there
(12:22):
were no such things as a two minute Super Bowl
commercial is so um the magic almost of ignorance, because
we had really no clue that Eminem would not license
a song, that Eminem would not appear in a commercial,
and that two minutes of advertising could not fit a
Super Bowl apart. You know, so you talk a little
bit about being the outsiders you hit town, Sergio, the
(12:46):
whole gang from Italy. Certainly you were outsiders. Did this
commercial change who you were in Detroit to that Detroit
community or you still every bit as much an outsider
after this? When I first to town, you know, I
was in a hotel, totally stuck, snow, outside, rain, terrible weather.
(13:06):
I could not even totally locate Michigan on the map,
the turn on the TV, and I remember still today
the commercials. I was so shocked. You know, this one
day only sales events. We don't have such things in Italy.
I mean one day only sales event, zero down deals.
I remember sharing with my friends everywhere all these prices
(13:27):
ending up in ninety nine. It seemed like America would
buy anything that ended in ninety nine. So I was
totally clueless. So I first blamed it on the culture barrier,
obviously blamed it on the jet lag, but really, as
a marketer, I just realized that these guys were totally lost.
They were speaking to themselves. They didn't connect to me
because they didn't connect to anyone else. You know, when
(13:50):
you're in a panic mode, you lose your mind. That
is a little bit to what the whole oli industry
did back in O nine and two thousand and ten.
So then the next thing I did, I started visiting
houses and apartments. All I knew about America was New York.
I hoped that there would be some kind of Manhattan
(14:10):
in Detroit. I didn't know, So I asked my driver,
you know, to just take me through Detroit and let's
decide where I'm going to live. He was laughing, because
obviously there was nowhere to live. Today, the city center
is all vibrant, is amazing. Everyone wants to move downtown Detroit,
even from New York, even from New York. And that's
(14:31):
maybe my biggest pride. No, no, having been part of
that movement. So but now touring in a car with
this guy who had a gun next to him, because
that's how dangerous the city was at the same time.
That's just two thousand and nine nine, And it became
very obvious that this city had a story to tell.
(14:53):
There was a spirit, there was his mindset. There was
something so much bigger than this commercial, this cup holders
and and all this. So this is what I decided
to deliver. In marketing, it's not about shooting for the
perfect commercial. It's always about shooting for the perfect moment.
And that commercial just came at the perfect moment. So
(15:17):
I want to go way back. I want to go
back to your childhood. Where did you grow up? Parents, siblings?
I have one brother, my brother liked the rest of
my family before me are very serious people. I had philosophers,
I had teachers, I had artists, in my family and
my brother is a super brilliant low professor at the
(15:40):
University in Paris. And the one thing we never had,
and it was probably one of the pride of the family.
We never had people like me. Salespeople, the worst of
the worst marketers and car marketers is probably the worst
thing you can What do they make of your life.
I'm one of the kind of the super intellectual family.
I'm the one who didn't make it, you know, I'm
(16:02):
the one who failed, and I'm a car salesman. And
there's no way they will change your mind, which is
totally fine with me. I totally get it. They don't
think I'm crazy. I'm just probably the one who didn't
follow the his DNA. I probably have something else in
the DNA processive gene, a recessive gene. I started well
(16:23):
in life. I used to write poetry. Did you write
poetry as a kid or this is after school? I
did write poetry as a kid, and it sounds like
that was sort of the household DNA. This was the
household DNA. I was super intellectual. What did you learn
from childhood that you apply to marketing? As you introduced
(16:44):
me very generously, when a frenchman working for an Italian
car company in America. You never know totally what language
this is going to be. And what's interesting about language
is that it drives a certain type of culture. Italian
as an example, Italian is the language of music. There's
a musicality in Italian and the words of music the
(17:06):
language of music, allegro conbri or forte legato, crescendo. What
is French? Friend? Is all about Romans. I really think
that French is the language of love. You know, if
you think of rendezvous, escapade, managerois I'm kidding, But all
these French words that you use here in America, what
is the addition of English besides the French kiss? If
(17:28):
you think, what are the words that are not translatable
in any other language? Marketing? I swear I tried to
Google translate marketing and there's another word, by the way, leadership.
I tried to translate leadership. What is the concept then
in French for marketing or leadership? There is not I
mean it translates marketing even in French. It doesn't translate.
(17:52):
It is only in English. And I like this idea
of my triple DNA helix or at least my kids
will have the triple. So on one hand, days this
taste for Romans and philanthropy as well, you know, super
important for us French people. This openness to the world.
This is what I get from my childhood. And then
(18:13):
all these you know, I'm married an Italian singer, a
live in Italy, and this all this edition of the language,
of the culture, of arts, of music, of beauty, of
da Vita. And then now there is the American addition.
That's leadership, that's marketing, that's business, and I love this mix.
(18:34):
Just hold on a second, because we've got so much
more to talk about. We'll be back after a quick break.
Welcome back the math and magic. So after school you
actually went into it. Here you are the greatest magician
(18:55):
and you were a mathematician. Is that right? I wasn't data.
I t using like the least likely person to be
in data. You're turny, right. So what happened is that
needed a job badly, and I was pretty pretty broke,
and I ended up overselling myself to the first entrepreneur.
Actually I met him at the head dresser and I
(19:17):
tried to bullshit a lot about what I could do
in I T. Truth is I did a very short
and little internship at IBM. Not a bad one, you know,
but the kind of internship when when you make copies
and serve coffees. That's all I had done in the
I T business. I convinced him to hire me, and
(19:37):
guess what, it went well. Obviously I ended up selling
I T more than programming on doing anything else. But hey,
I was lucky. It went well and I had very
good years there. You then went in the music business
at your own record label. Tell us about that. So
what I love about life is when it really comes
full circle and this is really what it does. Because yeah,
(20:00):
biggest ambition was to either write poetry or produce music.
I mean, I can read music. I went to the conservatory,
but I'm not a great musician. To be honest, I
have a good year. I think. I started with the
ambition of being a music producer. So I started a
little label in Paris. I didn't do amazing, didn't do
horrible either. You know, I could make a living. But
(20:22):
in the meantime I married my first wife, who gave
me three wonderful children. And rightfully, so, you know, women
are smarter than we are and Her plan for a
family was obviously not to marry a music guy or
to provide her kids with a music producer. She wanted
a real guy, was a real job. So reluctantly, but okay,
(20:44):
you know, out of love, I said, okay, I'm going
to to do something else. So I applied very randomly,
to be totally honest, there was this car company around
the corner in Paris, prey prestigious, old Citroen and still around.
And so I got hired and I left my record business.
Did some very data driven by the way job. I
(21:04):
started in pricing, So my job was to recommend. I
didn't decide anything, but there was recommending what the ideal
pricing should be for cast, looking at the margins, looking
at the profitability, looking at the competitiveness. So a lot
of data, a lot of Lotus one to three, and
I loved it. By the way, I was absolutely a
(21:24):
master in Lotus one to three. And hey, I strived
in this new environment. Forgot told you about music arts.
We grew our children and Citron grew me very nicely.
You how did you progress on the company, because you
went on to run various countries for yes, So in
the first step. I had absolutely no ambition to be
(21:45):
totally and I still do not have a lot of
ambition besides, you know, making a living and have some
quality time with my loved ones. That's my biggest ambition
in life. But they were good enough to me, you know,
to promote me every almost every year with two years.
And at some point, after ten years of being in
(22:06):
this big headquarters corridors, I missed my entrepreneurship, you know,
I missed the thrill that I experienced for a few
years as a music producer. I asked if there was
some possibility of just you know, I'm managing even a
little company within the company, and that little company was
sitter in Denmark. Then I went from Denmark to Italy
(22:29):
and still for the same company. And in Italy I
started learning marketing because in Italy it's all about the image.
It's not about the horsepower or the spects of the
careering to buy. How are you going to look like
if you are seen driving one? In Italy is very
much about the image you're going to project. So obviously
(22:53):
it's terribly about marketing. And the company was not in
good shape in terms of perceived image. So we started
this work. So first, marketing costs a lot of money,
so our first had to find some resources. So started
with structuring our network, cut into a lot of expenses
(23:13):
and creating critical mass that could allow us to spend
on marketing. Media is one saying the message is super important.
So when it comes to the message, I started patterning
with influencers. We had Gaban as an example, patterning with us.
I had the Bob Pittman of Italy and literally the
biggest radio guy becoming an influencer for me, and it
(23:36):
was featured in some of our campaigns. So the whole
thing big use of radio. To the credit of radio,
there's so much you can do that you can't do
with TV or print. We did this big venture with
the radio and brought back that company, you know, to
double the market share there too. We actually almost tripled
the market share. That was pretty incredible. Now, it was
(24:00):
extremely facilitated by something else that's super important, which is
the domestic leader, and that was Fiat. I think of
how ironic things are, you know, And the domestic leader
was weak at the time, I mean, were was in
a very very bad shape with Surgio there, and Sergio
was not there and I was obviously managing, you know,
(24:23):
to conquest customers. Fiat was was kind of feeding my business.
And then one day this incredible, hyper, super charismatic guy
out of nowhere, no one knew him, and called me
to Fiat was losing one million a day. So the
(24:44):
first moment that was not really convinced that that was
the right thing to do for at least to my family.
You know, obviously crazy attracted by the challenge, inquibly attracted
by the character. I mean, Sergio, what a character, what
a curism, But at the same time, I was not
sure it was the right thing to do in terms
(25:04):
of personal life. So I turned him down a couple
of times, and then he called me a third time,
but that time followed bright treason that was so unexpected.
I had published a poetry book at some point, and
he bought that book and called again. And he wanted
me because of the book, not just because I was
(25:27):
a good cast salesman, and I love that thing. I
saw that was totally irresistible, and I had to work
for a person like this, what yours this? And that
was in two thousand and five, so you gotta via,
what's your first car? There? Fiat was a group with
It was not the house of brands that we have today,
(25:47):
but it had this little super Italian brand called Lancha.
And what I asked Sergio, I said, look, okay, I
think I'm going to join the Fiat group, but I
want to grow my knowledge of the car business. I
want to had one of your car companies. So give
me the smallest one. But I want to get into
(26:09):
that experience of building cars, designing cars, producing cars, not
just selling on marketing. So he gave me this very
super small Italian boutique brand called Lancha that's really very
dutcha vita, very refined, beautifully crafted, um a little carts.
(26:33):
There is nothing more italient than Luncha. So I I
fell in love with a brand and um. But very
quickly I realized that our cash position, we're not financially
in position to invest a lot of money, so marketing again.
I was given enough money to life cycle animation, refresh
(26:55):
the car, put the right engine, change interior, but never
to launched the next big thing. Really what changed my
life was a couple of campaigns that I did to
promote my brand. So one campaign, since I didn't have
much money, also for marketing and needed to be very noisy,
(27:16):
to be very loud. So one campaign was taking advantage
of the Olympic Games in Beijing, and so I was
very much leaning towards Tibet and free Tibet and stumbled
on an article about Rishard Gear, who is extremely respected
and loved also in Europe, and obviously, I mean, he's
(27:39):
huge there, and so I convinced him to do a
kind of a pro free Tibet commercial and that thing
went nuts, and obviously we're running it taking advantage of
the Olympics, so that was a little bit of a provocation.
I stopped airing the commercial at some point, but that
(28:00):
got me to something else. So the former Russian president
Gbaov called me one day. I received that call in
my office, absolutely incredible with a translator. So he heard
of this commercial, so that was pretty bold, and offered
us to supply the Nobel Laureates. So we was heading
(28:25):
the summit of the Peace Nobel Areate, so it just
offered us to supply them with cars for their summits.
So okay, finally love that opportunity. But that was an
a defining moment because the day before the summit, I
decided to make the travel to Paris, and the summit
was in Paris with a very light group literally two
(28:46):
guys and a camera, and we created a video and
advertisement leading for freedom for our San Succi, the current
Burmese leader but who had been the house arrest for many,
many years. So we created that piece with obviously complicity
of all the novel ority are all featured in a
(29:10):
car garbage of Dalai Lama. I think Mandela was part
of it. I mean that was pretty crazy, and so
I started running that commercial that was obviously featuring a car,
but obviously it was about something more. My boss tumbled
on it. When he called me, I immediately knew that
(29:30):
it would be either very good or very bad. But
it turned out very good, you know. He he literally
recognized that there was something about marketing and that we
were doing that he liked. So he created that position
of CMO that didn't exist at the time for all
of the for all of fiats. So that's Fiat Lancia
(29:50):
at Fromeo as Verdi our group. That's fine, So we jump.
You guys go to and you do incredible stuff and
your legendary for that period it you guys get Chrysler.
This is in the depths of the recession of two
thousand two nine. What was your original plan for Chrysler.
(30:11):
I mean, you guys couldn't have studied it a whole
lot other than to know it's one of the big
three in Detroit. Sergio became very quickly, extremely aware that
the biggest strength for car maker are his brands. I
think that our new CEO, Mike Manley is even more convinced.
He was running. He's still running. By the way, the
(30:33):
Jeep brand with incredible success and we are all fantastic
brand It is actually mix. He speaks of a house
of brands, and it is so true. The real worth
of the crosso group where it's brands. There are no cars,
not many at least, but hey, Dodge Jeep Crosser. We
(30:56):
spinned off the ram trucks out of Dodge in order
to give Dodge its own personality and create attracts centric brand.
So that the recipe for that, or the principles you know, um,
they're very simple. Everything you do you need to be
brand centric. It sounds obvious, but it is absolutely not.
(31:17):
I mean, you need to recognize the brand in a
commercial without even having to see a car and that's
what we do still today. Then the second thing, be
bald and always unexpected, always unpredictable. I mean, if you
run together with the others at the same pace, And
that was you know Alice in Wonderland, the Red Queen.
(31:38):
That's a metaphor from Red Queen, where you know Alice
is running together with everyone and it's like she is static,
she doesn't move. But if you run quicker than you
are going to be exhausted. So you just need to
be different, to do things differently. Uh. And we spoke
of that with Eminem was everything we did and the
(31:59):
third saying, and that's really something super important when it
comes to marketing. Make a connection. It sounds obvious, but
my first encounter with marketing in America the prices in
the one day sales event, this kind of pathetic marketing
looking for short term sales. They didn't connect with anyone.
They were not relatable. They were speaking to themselves, relatable
(32:22):
as something else. I mean, if I can relate to
your advertising message, that's probably half the battle and no nonsense.
You know, then you make a connection and last be relevant.
I mean we spoke of how the Eminem commercial was relevant, uh,
and how the moment is important to what you do.
Once again, my conviction is you need to build your
(32:44):
brands first before even building your products, because there is
more value in selling a product through a brand then
trying to sell a brand through its newest product. A
brand is always more than a display of product, and
this is something most of the car makers have forgotten.
You know, a branch should be a statement, it should
(33:05):
be a persona. It should come with a purpose, and
it should be a promise. Then when you have all that,
then and only then, the single products become a family,
and the family becomes a brand. You've got an incredible
philosophy about advertising, You've got a history, you've got enormous experience,
and you've got an amazing team in Detroit, Susan Bruce
(33:28):
and all the others. Yep, you've got the idea. What's
the process? I got this aha moment and we're gonna
get this thing on the air. Oh totally. If you
take positioning as an example, you know we spoke of
important from Detroit. It's not just a line. It's not
just a tagline or punchline or it is the positioning
of Chryser because It defines specifically our market space. You know,
(33:53):
the quality and refinement of any important but that celebrates
at the same time the spirit of a city that's
important from Detroit. Then if I go the Brotherhood of Vessel,
what brand is that? You know, it's it's Dodge. It's obvious,
you know, Bill to Serve. It's not Dodge, that's Ramp.
And that's exactly why we separated the two brands. And
(34:15):
if I go Freedom and Adventure, Bob Jeep perfect you know,
mechanics of emotion, that's alpha. So that's what I call positioning.
It defines your turf. If you take Jeep, I mean
it's a quick essential because I know you love Jeep.
You know, I have Jeep wagon ears with the wood
(34:36):
grain on the doors and I'm still waiting for that
to come back. And my tail hatch that comes down
the back tail. Okay, the good news is it will
come back. We already said, and you won't have to
to wait for long. This morning about Jeep, by the way,
thinking of the podcast, you know, so um take all
the credit. I saw a Jeep and I realized that
really my recipe for Jeep is what I called the
(34:59):
triple A adventure, authenticity Americana. Talk about radio a little bit.
You've been a great user of the influencers, the on
air personalities. I remember after the Super Bowl you had
that fantastic long video of the Vikings coming to Minneapolis
and turning around, and our folks talked about it Monday morning.
To drive the views on YouTube, you suddenly tied together
(35:22):
a TV AD, radio and YouTube all on one campaign
that works seamlessly together. How do you think about those
pieces like that? So, yeah, there are many elements in
your question. So first I would like to touch the
people's story, you know, the endorsers, characters, and also music.
Music is super important unless you have a question, let us.
(35:46):
So now, people is super important. What I call people
is who you will see in the driver's seats. So
I spoke of my Italian experience. It's all about how
am I going to look like while driving a car.
So the selection of who you are going to put
behind the wheel is super super important because ultimately we
(36:07):
want you to be in the driver's seat, so you
need someone relatable but at the same time an aspirational
version of you. You know, the Ryan Gosling version of
Bob Pittman. You know, and so this is a little
bit how we select our endorsers and we had them
all honestly, Ron Burgundy, we had did the dre Oprah,
(36:29):
Lenny Kravitz, Charlie Sheen. That was one of super most
funny operations we ran with Fiat Clinti Suit obviously such
a blessing, amazing or Bob Dylan. I mean, I'm blessed
to have worked with people like this. Now, you know
what's super interesting really deep down as a marketing technique,
I hate endorsement. It's a short cut to buy recognition.
(36:53):
You borrow equity rather than to build it. So don't
get me wrong. My approach on endorsement is not the
tradish a way. You know, in Europe we know you
can buy anyone. You know, you have incredible American celebrities
selling express those in Germany and Italy. In France, everyone
has a price, almost everyone. I mean, that's one I
would like to always them to work with, and that's
(37:16):
Bruce sprincetein it doesn't have a price. Bruce sprinceteen want
and dos we know that, but it's very often about
a check book. And the use I like about endoughsters
is when they are themselves. I spoke of authenticity before.
This is exactly what I'm looking for now. If we
talk about music, that's my favorite obviously, and that's where
(37:38):
I said in the beginning, when it's great, when thanks
in life come full circle, I've never been dealing as
much with music as i'm today. You know, so the
failed music producer is now dealing with all the music powerhouses.
Of this maybe a secret, so I don't want to
let it out. But you said, not only do you
have a persona for every brand, but you have a
(38:01):
sound You have the music for every brand. Totally have
a music for every brand. I mean the soundtrack of
the brand is what I call my playlist. So I think,
to a marketer, music and radio are the most amazing
tool you can dream of, first because it helps you
carving your special place in the culture. Second because it
(38:24):
gets you the perfect connection with your target. And now
I'm thinking of radio as much as I'm thinking of music.
I mean, that's exactly what I'm buying when I have
a radio media buy, I buy an incredibly personal connection
to the target. You got a friend, that's what are
people on the exactly what it is brand talking to
them and third, and that's maybe more for the music.
(38:47):
It helps you amplify the brand personality. Clearly, if you
select the right genre in a very consistent manner, it
will help you identify a brand in a commercial. That's
kind of a subconscious connection with the consumer. And by
the way, indeed I hear the music, I can tell
you which car you're talking about. You really have done
(39:08):
an admirable exactly. So. But what is super important, by
the way, I mean, what we try to do with music.
So obviously we partnered with many many artists. I think
the biggest achievements are when you are able to break
a new song. That's really what I like ex Ambassadors.
Ex Ambassadors as an example, with Renegade literally a song literally. Yeah,
(39:30):
music and marketing Day is a kind of a secret sauce.
And what's funny, by the way, Bob, is that I
came up with that thing kind of you know, I
made it up on a fire chat with you in Detroit,
um somewhere, and then I wrote it down and then
it became kind of my religion when it comes to music.
So what is it about. I think, if you really
(39:53):
want to connect in a very organic manner, A song
and a campaign you have to look at for l
the sound, the lyrics, the alignment with the audience, and
the following of the artists. So I mean sound is
about authenticity. The sound will make it sound deep or
Dodge or ram or crass or none of them. So
(40:16):
that's obviously super important to JEEP. Would be rock in
the rock, folk, whatever. Again I said authenticity, adventure, Americana.
It cannot be anything else then American. My ideal sound
for Jeep is queen meat. Imagine dragons, you know, something
very nthemic. That's the Jeep sound I'm dreaming of. And
obviously country music his home of ram, and hard rock
(40:40):
his home of Dodge and so on. Then, as I
said before, a good at needs to be meaningful, no nonsense,
and the lyrics are going to make it meaningful or not.
You know, I was mentioning one Republics connection or the
Renegade song that was all meaning. Then it needs to
be relevant. What made the magic of the Eminem campaign
(41:04):
is that obviously the lyrics and the alignment of Eminem
himself made the whole message relevant. And then, as I
said before, if you want to be relatable, you need
to think of your audience and who they relate to.
What I think is great about this coming full circle
about music is that I can totally relate to the
(41:25):
challenge that is breaking a new song. As a former producer,
I know how exhausting it is to promote a new tract.
Is slow, it's expensive, and it's always a very long shot,
which is exactly why the smartest labels are looking for
shortcuts and they come to us. They understand that I
will never misuse the creative work and do bad marketing
(41:48):
with it. But on the other hand, it's a win
win and it feels good because it's always about helping
a good cause. I mean, and that's back to my
French roots, about this romantic way to see a business,
music and culture differently worth helping. So Olivier, we've gone
full circle. We've gone from you started in music, you
(42:08):
had to get out of it to get a real job,
and you've come back to being this genius of marketing
and you're back to music. So let me end with
the way we always end every episode. We're gonna do
two things. It's back to math and magic. Think about
the analytical, the master of the numbers to run a
business the master of data. Who's the greatest mathematician you've known?
(42:31):
I would say you want Sebasin Bach. He made music
out of myth. Okay, we'll move to magic. Then, who's
the greatest magician you know? Not including you? Definitely you
want sea music out of love it? Olivier, Thank you,
thank you. Here are some things I heard in my
(42:52):
conversation with Olivier and Olivier's words. A brand, it should
make a statement. It should come with the purpose and
a promise to One of Olivier's tricks is to come
up with a soundtrack for every brand he manages. It's
a novel way to understand and communicate the spirit of
the brand. Three, don't run away from who you are.
Figure out how to make it work for you. Imported
(43:15):
from Detroit did exactly that. Thanks for listening. I'm Bob Pittman.
That's it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening
to Math and Magic, a production of I Heart Radio.
This show is hosted by Bob Pittman. Special thanks to
Sue Schillinger for booking and wrangling our wonderful talent, which
is no small feat Nikkiatore for pulling research bill plaques
(43:39):
and Michael Asar for their recording help, our editor Ryan Murdoch,
and of course Gail Raoul, Eric Angel, Noel Mango and
everyone who helped bring this show to your ears. Until
next time,
You're listening to Math and Magic, a production of I
Heart Radio. A brand is always more than a display
off product, and this is something most of your makers
have forgotten. You know, a branch should be a statement,
It should be a persona. It should come with a purpose,
and it should be a promise. Then when you have
(00:24):
all that, then and only then, the single products become
a family. In the family becomes a brand. I'm Bob Pittman,
and welcome to Math and Magic. Stories from the Frontiers
of Marketing. We explore the analytical and the creative. And
today we have a Frenchman who works for an Italian
(00:46):
company and lives in Detroit. That in itself is probably
a podcast. Olivier Francois is the CMO of Fiat Chrysler
and the originator of one of the best repositioning marketing
lines I've ever heard, imported from Detroit. He's the creative
force behind those iconic ads that featured legends from eminem
(01:09):
to Clint Eastwood to Bob Dylan, and they have even
remarketed Detroit making a cool and vibrant again. Olivia speaks
at least three languages. He's a published poet, he's had
his own music company, still uses that skill as a
competitive advantage in business. He even had an export business
that included jams and skis. He has a life that
spans continents and ideas that span genres. He has a
(01:32):
great story about how he made the jump to the
card business, which we'll get to. I met Olivier in
Turin because I could never get in to see him
in Detroit, so I decided to stop and see him there.
He has offices everywhere, always on the go, so we
have a lot to discuss today. Welcome Olivier, Thank you
for having me. Well, we're delighted to have you. And
before we get into all the meaty stuff, we have
a little feature we start with, which is called you
(01:54):
in sixty seconds. This is gonna be rapid fire questions.
Don't think about it, just give us your answer. Vanilla
or chocolate, which do you prefer? There is no need
to choose, says a mix in Italy. It's called Strachatella
delicious France or Italy Italy because they invented stra New
York City or l A City, Detroit, Detroit or Turan.
I want to say, actually Miami, Okay, Motown or Hip
(02:17):
hop definitely Motown, but Hey is a son of Motown,
so there's two things have come together nicely. No power
boats or sailboats. Sailboats are solar power boats. Maybe zoo
Lander or Ron Burgundy, Round Burgundy da Vinci or Gala
Leo da Vinci. You know why because he was Italian
but spent most of his life in France, So double culture.
I can definitely relate to this. Imported from Detroit or
(02:41):
halftime in America. Important to America like me, it's about
to get harder. What secret tality you have, boy maker?
Have four boys? Favorite European city Venice, It's on the water.
I love it. Favorite American city Miami, it's on the water.
I love it. Favorite poet. So I'm hesitating between Bodle,
Shakespeare and Eminem, but we'll say Lare because I'm French.
(03:01):
Favorite artist. Oh okay, that's a chance to say Eminem. Then,
most prestigious award you've ever received, the high school diploma.
That was a pure miracle at the time. Historical idol,
I hate idols. No idols. If you could have one superpower,
what would it be? Get rid of the French accents
who would play you in a movie. I have no clue.
Proudest achievement marrying my wife Arianna and keep making her happy.
(03:24):
What's one food you'd never eat? I eat everything, spoken
like a true Italian Frenchman, a detroitter. Let's jump for
a few minutes to your big inspirational moments here at
I Heart. We have a wildly popular podcast with Ron Burgundy,
and you had a wildly successful ad campaign with Ron
Burgundy as well. Where did that come from? This comes
(03:46):
from the idea that I say, what makes a big
difference in marketing is authenticity. So what we always try
to do is align our brand, it's ethos, personality with
someone who embodies exactly a say, set of values. And
that was very much eminem and cross in that moment. Obviously,
to just use an example, Ron Burgundy was incredibly what
(04:09):
I wanted to do with Dodge at the time. Not
will fail. Literally the character we saw it was very irreverent.
It embodied exactly the personality of Dodge as I saw
it at the time. How did you put that together?
So you have this idea, did you say, wow, Ryan
Burgundy is it? Or did someone tell you about Ryan Burgundy? No,
someone told you My body, Tim Karniskis. I mean, there's
(04:31):
an element of American cultures that obviously do not have.
So this is a handicap. At the same time, it's
a blessing because obviously I'm open to everything, and I
have developed some antennas, you know, that allow me to understand,
to smell, to feel what's good, what's maybe not that good,
And in this case, I thought that that could be
something very innovative. You mentioned Zoolander. We also did a
(04:54):
Fiat campaign with Ben Steeler. It was not Ben Steeler
obviously embodying Fiat, it was their Exulander. This was an
amazing commercial. Actually it ran in the whole world. And
the beauty here is it's all about a partnership. So
these guys have a movie they want to promote, you know,
think of Fast and Furious and Vin Diesel, same story.
You know, they want to promote the movie. Generally, they
(05:16):
are producers of their own movie. So obviously there's some
interest in having a media partner. So I hire the character,
not the actor. The character. We developed a commercial. Hey,
in some cases, I think that the campaign was better
than the movie. I won't bring any name, but I
think that in some of these cases, the campaign was
(05:38):
probably almost overpromising. So you bring run Burgundy, end, this
is going to be your campaign. You tell people internally
in the company, I have this great idea, run Burgundy.
The people go brilliant or they go while that's risky. No,
I didn't tell anyone in the company. We just do it.
So that's the empowerment we have. F c A is
all about leadership, and lead ship is about taking your
(06:01):
responsibilities and obviously about accountability. If it fails, it is
your own failure. So the day I understood that it
was probably not a great idea to share ideas in advance,
was actually this important from Detroit idea Where I shared it.
It was almost my very first campaign, and I was
(06:21):
not totally sure, and clearly the advice were not positive.
You know, don't bring up Detroit. Detroit is not liked.
People don't connect with Detroit. That your feminism eminem is
probably a little bit controversial, and blah blah. The only
thing these advisors didn't think of telling me is that
(06:42):
you could not do a two minute Super Bowl commercial.
So the first part of the advice I luckily ignored.
It was probably not a bad advice it just turned
out not being what people were afraid of, you know,
math beach magic, Yes, exactly, part to predict the magic
talk about imported from Detroit, which I'm a marketer at
(07:02):
hard and it's one of the greatest lines I've ever heard.
Where did that line come from? So that line came
totally incidentally from a speech I came from Fiat and
I was called by our late boss, Surgeon Match to
lead Chrysler, and I was leading another European car maker there.
(07:22):
So we said, hey, come over, I need you for Crysser.
And the first thing we did we had to bring
new models. So um, the shortest time to market we
could think of was to take the old Sea Bring
that was not the greatest car. We had to be
totally fair fix it makes some things that would really
match the level of qualities we wanted for Crossers. So
(07:45):
we fixed the quality, we fixed the design. Yet it
was not a brand new car. It was a facelift,
so we named it Crossed two hundreds, which was almost
a bit overstating the newness of the car. And then
the slow that we had to launch a car was
l A. The l A Auto Show Detroit was a
(08:05):
bit too far ahead. LA seemed perfect. Obviously I was
so terribly ignorant of all things America. I am still ignorant,
but then it was really pathetic. So one thing I
didn't know is that the l A Auto Show is
literally the Imports Detroit. I mean, it is really where
(08:26):
you celebrate Japanese cars, German cars, maybe Italian cars by
the way, but for sure not a Crassler. So too late,
I'm on stage presenting my new baby. And that was
obviously one of the most important moments in my life,
because this was a question of life or death for
the whole company and not just for me. And when
(08:47):
I realized that l A is home of the imports,
the respect quality design and more importantly fuel efficiency. And
at the time, back in two thousand and ten eleven,
I mean, the design, we were making progress. Quality, as
I just said, we were making big strides. Fuel efficiency
(09:08):
not so much. But the Cross the two hundred had
something to say, so I just instinctively pitched it. I
made this up on stage. I say, hey, I know
that you guys like imports and we are in l A.
So look at this car like imported from Detroit. It
was just my ending and actually a couple of people
came and said that's would be a good line for
a not and then I thought of it, you know,
(09:29):
and I said, yeah, that's a good life for a not.
Then clearly the soundtrack came. I have four kids, two
of which at the time were very much into hip
hop and introduced me to Eminem, And obviously when we
started thinking of Detroit, obviously that tune came to mind.
When you have one chance, one opportunity that totally connects
together Crosser Detroit and all of America. So I was
(09:55):
obsessed with securing that song, which ended up being an endeavor,
says the least. Once I had the song, Eminem was
so intwigued. You know, it was never scripted to be
in the commercial. It was just kind of probably in
twigued at the same time, may be a bit scared
by rightfully, so you know, what are these advertisers going
(10:16):
to do with my song? I promised him that would
be probably more largely about Detroit than just about a
car for sure, or even the brand. But he came
on set and then it just magic happened. So from
six hundred cars promounts to six thousand after the commercial
(10:36):
that math aspect and and the magic is what happened
in the whole country because obviously the commercial resonated with
more than just Detroit, with more than just car guys.
It resonated as a message of pride for all of America.
What was detroit reaction to at the whole community? I
(10:56):
know that a town of cars, it's the motor city.
Had they feel about it? They felt incredible. I mean
it was really our love declaration to our hometown. But really, again,
as I said before, it went above and beyond Detroit,
because all of America that didn't like very much Detroit
(11:18):
in that moment, I mean, they didn't like the mosest city.
People were very suspicious when it came to Detroit and
when it came to all these bankruptcies. But there was
a spirit, there was a mindset, in an attitude in
that commercial, and that's very largely due to Eminem and
to his music. The images were pretty good there, and
the images were very good to look very cool. It
(11:40):
made Detroit look very cool. And it's a mix of
images that some we captured that day, some we had captured.
I mean that was something we totally made up. We
were not even sure that we would even air a
Super Bowl commercial. We were a bailout company, and my
boss and our management and to the last moment, we're
(12:01):
assessing whether airing a big commercial during a Super Bowl
was a good thing or a bad thing. Would there
be a backlash? We had secured I sink in ninety seconds,
but that thing was just magical and beautiful as a
two minutes. So we also had to buy the extra
so a second convince the NFL to innovate because there
(12:22):
were no such things as a two minute Super Bowl
commercial is so um the magic almost of ignorance, because
we had really no clue that Eminem would not license
a song, that Eminem would not appear in a commercial,
and that two minutes of advertising could not fit a
Super Bowl apart. You know, so you talk a little
bit about being the outsiders you hit town, Sergio, the
(12:46):
whole gang from Italy. Certainly you were outsiders. Did this
commercial change who you were in Detroit to that Detroit
community or you still every bit as much an outsider
after this? When I first to town, you know, I
was in a hotel, totally stuck, snow, outside, rain, terrible weather.
(13:06):
I could not even totally locate Michigan on the map,
the turn on the TV, and I remember still today
the commercials. I was so shocked. You know, this one
day only sales events. We don't have such things in Italy.
I mean one day only sales event, zero down deals.
I remember sharing with my friends everywhere all these prices
(13:27):
ending up in ninety nine. It seemed like America would
buy anything that ended in ninety nine. So I was
totally clueless. So I first blamed it on the culture barrier,
obviously blamed it on the jet lag, but really, as
a marketer, I just realized that these guys were totally lost.
They were speaking to themselves. They didn't connect to me
because they didn't connect to anyone else. You know, when
(13:50):
you're in a panic mode, you lose your mind. That
is a little bit to what the whole oli industry
did back in O nine and two thousand and ten.
So then the next thing I did, I started visiting
houses and apartments. All I knew about America was New York.
I hoped that there would be some kind of Manhattan
(14:10):
in Detroit. I didn't know, So I asked my driver,
you know, to just take me through Detroit and let's
decide where I'm going to live. He was laughing, because
obviously there was nowhere to live. Today, the city center
is all vibrant, is amazing. Everyone wants to move downtown Detroit,
even from New York, even from New York. And that's
(14:31):
maybe my biggest pride. No, no, having been part of
that movement. So but now touring in a car with
this guy who had a gun next to him, because
that's how dangerous the city was at the same time.
That's just two thousand and nine nine, And it became
very obvious that this city had a story to tell.
(14:53):
There was a spirit, there was his mindset. There was
something so much bigger than this commercial, this cup holders
and and all this. So this is what I decided
to deliver. In marketing, it's not about shooting for the
perfect commercial. It's always about shooting for the perfect moment.
And that commercial just came at the perfect moment. So
(15:17):
I want to go way back. I want to go
back to your childhood. Where did you grow up? Parents, siblings?
I have one brother, my brother liked the rest of
my family before me are very serious people. I had philosophers,
I had teachers, I had artists, in my family and
my brother is a super brilliant low professor at the
(15:40):
University in Paris. And the one thing we never had,
and it was probably one of the pride of the family.
We never had people like me. Salespeople, the worst of
the worst marketers and car marketers is probably the worst
thing you can What do they make of your life.
I'm one of the kind of the super intellectual family.
I'm the one who didn't make it, you know, I'm
(16:02):
the one who failed, and I'm a car salesman. And
there's no way they will change your mind, which is
totally fine with me. I totally get it. They don't
think I'm crazy. I'm just probably the one who didn't
follow the his DNA. I probably have something else in
the DNA processive gene, a recessive gene. I started well
(16:23):
in life. I used to write poetry. Did you write
poetry as a kid or this is after school? I
did write poetry as a kid, and it sounds like
that was sort of the household DNA. This was the
household DNA. I was super intellectual. What did you learn
from childhood that you apply to marketing? As you introduced
(16:44):
me very generously, when a frenchman working for an Italian
car company in America. You never know totally what language
this is going to be. And what's interesting about language
is that it drives a certain type of culture. Italian
as an example, Italian is the language of music. There's
a musicality in Italian and the words of music the
(17:06):
language of music, allegro conbri or forte legato, crescendo. What
is French? Friend? Is all about Romans. I really think
that French is the language of love. You know, if
you think of rendezvous, escapade, managerois I'm kidding, But all
these French words that you use here in America, what
is the addition of English besides the French kiss? If
(17:28):
you think, what are the words that are not translatable
in any other language? Marketing? I swear I tried to
Google translate marketing and there's another word, by the way, leadership.
I tried to translate leadership. What is the concept then
in French for marketing or leadership? There is not I
mean it translates marketing even in French. It doesn't translate.
(17:52):
It is only in English. And I like this idea
of my triple DNA helix or at least my kids
will have the triple. So on one hand, days this
taste for Romans and philanthropy as well, you know, super
important for us French people. This openness to the world.
This is what I get from my childhood. And then
(18:13):
all these you know, I'm married an Italian singer, a
live in Italy, and this all this edition of the language,
of the culture, of arts, of music, of beauty, of
da Vita. And then now there is the American addition.
That's leadership, that's marketing, that's business, and I love this mix.
(18:34):
Just hold on a second, because we've got so much
more to talk about. We'll be back after a quick break.
Welcome back the math and magic. So after school you
actually went into it. Here you are the greatest magician
(18:55):
and you were a mathematician. Is that right? I wasn't data.
I t using like the least likely person to be
in data. You're turny, right. So what happened is that
needed a job badly, and I was pretty pretty broke,
and I ended up overselling myself to the first entrepreneur.
Actually I met him at the head dresser and I
(19:17):
tried to bullshit a lot about what I could do
in I T. Truth is I did a very short
and little internship at IBM. Not a bad one, you know,
but the kind of internship when when you make copies
and serve coffees. That's all I had done in the
I T business. I convinced him to hire me, and
(19:37):
guess what, it went well. Obviously I ended up selling
I T more than programming on doing anything else. But hey,
I was lucky. It went well and I had very
good years there. You then went in the music business
at your own record label. Tell us about that. So
what I love about life is when it really comes
full circle and this is really what it does. Because yeah,
(20:00):
biggest ambition was to either write poetry or produce music.
I mean, I can read music. I went to the conservatory,
but I'm not a great musician. To be honest, I
have a good year. I think. I started with the
ambition of being a music producer. So I started a
little label in Paris. I didn't do amazing, didn't do
horrible either. You know, I could make a living. But
(20:22):
in the meantime I married my first wife, who gave
me three wonderful children. And rightfully, so, you know, women
are smarter than we are and Her plan for a
family was obviously not to marry a music guy or
to provide her kids with a music producer. She wanted
a real guy, was a real job. So reluctantly, but okay,
(20:44):
you know, out of love, I said, okay, I'm going
to to do something else. So I applied very randomly,
to be totally honest, there was this car company around
the corner in Paris, prey prestigious, old Citroen and still around.
And so I got hired and I left my record business.
Did some very data driven by the way job. I
(21:04):
started in pricing, So my job was to recommend. I
didn't decide anything, but there was recommending what the ideal
pricing should be for cast, looking at the margins, looking
at the profitability, looking at the competitiveness. So a lot
of data, a lot of Lotus one to three, and
I loved it. By the way, I was absolutely a
(21:24):
master in Lotus one to three. And hey, I strived
in this new environment. Forgot told you about music arts.
We grew our children and Citron grew me very nicely.
You how did you progress on the company, because you
went on to run various countries for yes, So in
the first step. I had absolutely no ambition to be
(21:45):
totally and I still do not have a lot of
ambition besides, you know, making a living and have some
quality time with my loved ones. That's my biggest ambition
in life. But they were good enough to me, you know,
to promote me every almost every year with two years.
And at some point, after ten years of being in
(22:06):
this big headquarters corridors, I missed my entrepreneurship, you know,
I missed the thrill that I experienced for a few
years as a music producer. I asked if there was
some possibility of just you know, I'm managing even a
little company within the company, and that little company was
sitter in Denmark. Then I went from Denmark to Italy
(22:29):
and still for the same company. And in Italy I
started learning marketing because in Italy it's all about the image.
It's not about the horsepower or the spects of the
careering to buy. How are you going to look like
if you are seen driving one? In Italy is very
much about the image you're going to project. So obviously
(22:53):
it's terribly about marketing. And the company was not in
good shape in terms of perceived image. So we started
this work. So first, marketing costs a lot of money,
so our first had to find some resources. So started
with structuring our network, cut into a lot of expenses
(23:13):
and creating critical mass that could allow us to spend
on marketing. Media is one saying the message is super important.
So when it comes to the message, I started patterning
with influencers. We had Gaban as an example, patterning with us.
I had the Bob Pittman of Italy and literally the
biggest radio guy becoming an influencer for me, and it
(23:36):
was featured in some of our campaigns. So the whole
thing big use of radio. To the credit of radio,
there's so much you can do that you can't do
with TV or print. We did this big venture with
the radio and brought back that company, you know, to
double the market share there too. We actually almost tripled
the market share. That was pretty incredible. Now, it was
(24:00):
extremely facilitated by something else that's super important, which is
the domestic leader, and that was Fiat. I think of
how ironic things are, you know, And the domestic leader
was weak at the time, I mean, were was in
a very very bad shape with Surgio there, and Sergio
was not there and I was obviously managing, you know,
(24:23):
to conquest customers. Fiat was was kind of feeding my business.
And then one day this incredible, hyper, super charismatic guy
out of nowhere, no one knew him, and called me
to Fiat was losing one million a day. So the
(24:44):
first moment that was not really convinced that that was
the right thing to do for at least to my family.
You know, obviously crazy attracted by the challenge, inquibly attracted
by the character. I mean, Sergio, what a character, what
a curism, But at the same time, I was not
sure it was the right thing to do in terms
(25:04):
of personal life. So I turned him down a couple
of times, and then he called me a third time,
but that time followed bright treason that was so unexpected.
I had published a poetry book at some point, and
he bought that book and called again. And he wanted
me because of the book, not just because I was
(25:27):
a good cast salesman, and I love that thing. I
saw that was totally irresistible, and I had to work
for a person like this, what yours this? And that
was in two thousand and five, so you gotta via,
what's your first car? There? Fiat was a group with
It was not the house of brands that we have today,
(25:47):
but it had this little super Italian brand called Lancha.
And what I asked Sergio, I said, look, okay, I
think I'm going to join the Fiat group, but I
want to grow my knowledge of the car business. I
want to had one of your car companies. So give
me the smallest one. But I want to get into
(26:09):
that experience of building cars, designing cars, producing cars, not
just selling on marketing. So he gave me this very
super small Italian boutique brand called Lancha that's really very
dutcha vita, very refined, beautifully crafted, um a little carts.
(26:33):
There is nothing more italient than Luncha. So I I
fell in love with a brand and um. But very
quickly I realized that our cash position, we're not financially
in position to invest a lot of money, so marketing again.
I was given enough money to life cycle animation, refresh
(26:55):
the car, put the right engine, change interior, but never
to launched the next big thing. Really what changed my
life was a couple of campaigns that I did to
promote my brand. So one campaign, since I didn't have
much money, also for marketing and needed to be very noisy,
(27:16):
to be very loud. So one campaign was taking advantage
of the Olympic Games in Beijing, and so I was
very much leaning towards Tibet and free Tibet and stumbled
on an article about Rishard Gear, who is extremely respected
and loved also in Europe, and obviously, I mean, he's
(27:39):
huge there, and so I convinced him to do a
kind of a pro free Tibet commercial and that thing
went nuts, and obviously we're running it taking advantage of
the Olympics, so that was a little bit of a provocation.
I stopped airing the commercial at some point, but that
(28:00):
got me to something else. So the former Russian president
Gbaov called me one day. I received that call in
my office, absolutely incredible with a translator. So he heard
of this commercial, so that was pretty bold, and offered
us to supply the Nobel Laureates. So we was heading
(28:25):
the summit of the Peace Nobel Areate, so it just
offered us to supply them with cars for their summits.
So okay, finally love that opportunity. But that was an
a defining moment because the day before the summit, I
decided to make the travel to Paris, and the summit
was in Paris with a very light group literally two
(28:46):
guys and a camera, and we created a video and
advertisement leading for freedom for our San Succi, the current
Burmese leader but who had been the house arrest for many,
many years. So we created that piece with obviously complicity
of all the novel ority are all featured in a
(29:10):
car garbage of Dalai Lama. I think Mandela was part
of it. I mean that was pretty crazy, and so
I started running that commercial that was obviously featuring a car,
but obviously it was about something more. My boss tumbled
on it. When he called me, I immediately knew that
(29:30):
it would be either very good or very bad. But
it turned out very good, you know. He he literally
recognized that there was something about marketing and that we
were doing that he liked. So he created that position
of CMO that didn't exist at the time for all
of the for all of fiats. So that's Fiat Lancia
(29:50):
at Fromeo as Verdi our group. That's fine, So we jump.
You guys go to and you do incredible stuff and
your legendary for that period it you guys get Chrysler.
This is in the depths of the recession of two
thousand two nine. What was your original plan for Chrysler.
(30:11):
I mean, you guys couldn't have studied it a whole
lot other than to know it's one of the big
three in Detroit. Sergio became very quickly, extremely aware that
the biggest strength for car maker are his brands. I
think that our new CEO, Mike Manley is even more convinced.
He was running. He's still running. By the way, the
(30:33):
Jeep brand with incredible success and we are all fantastic
brand It is actually mix. He speaks of a house
of brands, and it is so true. The real worth
of the crosso group where it's brands. There are no cars,
not many at least, but hey, Dodge Jeep Crosser. We
(30:56):
spinned off the ram trucks out of Dodge in order
to give Dodge its own personality and create attracts centric brand.
So that the recipe for that, or the principles you know, um,
they're very simple. Everything you do you need to be
brand centric. It sounds obvious, but it is absolutely not.
(31:17):
I mean, you need to recognize the brand in a
commercial without even having to see a car and that's
what we do still today. Then the second thing, be
bald and always unexpected, always unpredictable. I mean, if you
run together with the others at the same pace, And
that was you know Alice in Wonderland, the Red Queen.
(31:38):
That's a metaphor from Red Queen, where you know Alice
is running together with everyone and it's like she is static,
she doesn't move. But if you run quicker than you
are going to be exhausted. So you just need to
be different, to do things differently. Uh. And we spoke
of that with Eminem was everything we did and the
(31:59):
third saying, and that's really something super important when it
comes to marketing. Make a connection. It sounds obvious, but
my first encounter with marketing in America the prices in
the one day sales event, this kind of pathetic marketing
looking for short term sales. They didn't connect with anyone.
They were not relatable. They were speaking to themselves, relatable
(32:22):
as something else. I mean, if I can relate to
your advertising message, that's probably half the battle and no nonsense.
You know, then you make a connection and last be relevant.
I mean we spoke of how the Eminem commercial was relevant, uh,
and how the moment is important to what you do.
Once again, my conviction is you need to build your
(32:44):
brands first before even building your products, because there is
more value in selling a product through a brand then
trying to sell a brand through its newest product. A
brand is always more than a display of product, and
this is something most of the car makers have forgotten.
You know, a branch should be a statement, it should
(33:05):
be a persona. It should come with a purpose, and
it should be a promise. Then when you have all that,
then and only then, the single products become a family,
and the family becomes a brand. You've got an incredible
philosophy about advertising, You've got a history, you've got enormous experience,
and you've got an amazing team in Detroit, Susan Bruce
(33:28):
and all the others. Yep, you've got the idea. What's
the process? I got this aha moment and we're gonna
get this thing on the air. Oh totally. If you
take positioning as an example, you know we spoke of
important from Detroit. It's not just a line. It's not
just a tagline or punchline or it is the positioning
of Chryser because It defines specifically our market space. You know,
(33:53):
the quality and refinement of any important but that celebrates
at the same time the spirit of a city that's
important from Detroit. Then if I go the Brotherhood of Vessel,
what brand is that? You know, it's it's Dodge. It's obvious,
you know, Bill to Serve. It's not Dodge, that's Ramp.
And that's exactly why we separated the two brands. And
(34:15):
if I go Freedom and Adventure, Bob Jeep perfect you know,
mechanics of emotion, that's alpha. So that's what I call positioning.
It defines your turf. If you take Jeep, I mean
it's a quick essential because I know you love Jeep.
You know, I have Jeep wagon ears with the wood
(34:36):
grain on the doors and I'm still waiting for that
to come back. And my tail hatch that comes down
the back tail. Okay, the good news is it will
come back. We already said, and you won't have to
to wait for long. This morning about Jeep, by the way,
thinking of the podcast, you know, so um take all
the credit. I saw a Jeep and I realized that
really my recipe for Jeep is what I called the
(34:59):
triple A adventure, authenticity Americana. Talk about radio a little bit.
You've been a great user of the influencers, the on
air personalities. I remember after the Super Bowl you had
that fantastic long video of the Vikings coming to Minneapolis
and turning around, and our folks talked about it Monday morning.
To drive the views on YouTube, you suddenly tied together
(35:22):
a TV AD, radio and YouTube all on one campaign
that works seamlessly together. How do you think about those
pieces like that? So, yeah, there are many elements in
your question. So first I would like to touch the
people's story, you know, the endorsers, characters, and also music.
Music is super important unless you have a question, let us.
(35:46):
So now, people is super important. What I call people
is who you will see in the driver's seats. So
I spoke of my Italian experience. It's all about how
am I going to look like while driving a car.
So the selection of who you are going to put
behind the wheel is super super important because ultimately we
(36:07):
want you to be in the driver's seat, so you
need someone relatable but at the same time an aspirational
version of you. You know, the Ryan Gosling version of
Bob Pittman. You know, and so this is a little
bit how we select our endorsers and we had them
all honestly, Ron Burgundy, we had did the dre Oprah,
(36:29):
Lenny Kravitz, Charlie Sheen. That was one of super most
funny operations we ran with Fiat Clinti Suit obviously such
a blessing, amazing or Bob Dylan. I mean, I'm blessed
to have worked with people like this. Now, you know
what's super interesting really deep down as a marketing technique,
I hate endorsement. It's a short cut to buy recognition.
(36:53):
You borrow equity rather than to build it. So don't
get me wrong. My approach on endorsement is not the
tradish a way. You know, in Europe we know you
can buy anyone. You know, you have incredible American celebrities
selling express those in Germany and Italy. In France, everyone
has a price, almost everyone. I mean, that's one I
would like to always them to work with, and that's
(37:16):
Bruce sprincetein it doesn't have a price. Bruce sprinceteen want
and dos we know that, but it's very often about
a check book. And the use I like about endoughsters
is when they are themselves. I spoke of authenticity before.
This is exactly what I'm looking for now. If we
talk about music, that's my favorite obviously, and that's where
(37:38):
I said in the beginning, when it's great, when thanks
in life come full circle, I've never been dealing as
much with music as i'm today. You know, so the
failed music producer is now dealing with all the music powerhouses.
Of this maybe a secret, so I don't want to
let it out. But you said, not only do you
have a persona for every brand, but you have a
(38:01):
sound You have the music for every brand. Totally have
a music for every brand. I mean the soundtrack of
the brand is what I call my playlist. So I think,
to a marketer, music and radio are the most amazing
tool you can dream of, first because it helps you
carving your special place in the culture. Second because it
(38:24):
gets you the perfect connection with your target. And now
I'm thinking of radio as much as I'm thinking of music.
I mean, that's exactly what I'm buying when I have
a radio media buy, I buy an incredibly personal connection
to the target. You got a friend, that's what are
people on the exactly what it is brand talking to
them and third, and that's maybe more for the music.
(38:47):
It helps you amplify the brand personality. Clearly, if you
select the right genre in a very consistent manner, it
will help you identify a brand in a commercial. That's
kind of a subconscious connection with the consumer. And by
the way, indeed I hear the music, I can tell
you which car you're talking about. You really have done
(39:08):
an admirable exactly. So. But what is super important, by
the way, I mean, what we try to do with music.
So obviously we partnered with many many artists. I think
the biggest achievements are when you are able to break
a new song. That's really what I like ex Ambassadors.
Ex Ambassadors as an example, with Renegade literally a song literally. Yeah,
(39:30):
music and marketing Day is a kind of a secret sauce.
And what's funny, by the way, Bob, is that I
came up with that thing kind of you know, I
made it up on a fire chat with you in Detroit,
um somewhere, and then I wrote it down and then
it became kind of my religion when it comes to music.
So what is it about. I think, if you really
(39:53):
want to connect in a very organic manner, A song
and a campaign you have to look at for l
the sound, the lyrics, the alignment with the audience, and
the following of the artists. So I mean sound is
about authenticity. The sound will make it sound deep or
Dodge or ram or crass or none of them. So
(40:16):
that's obviously super important to JEEP. Would be rock in
the rock, folk, whatever. Again I said authenticity, adventure, Americana.
It cannot be anything else then American. My ideal sound
for Jeep is queen meat. Imagine dragons, you know, something
very nthemic. That's the Jeep sound I'm dreaming of. And
obviously country music his home of ram, and hard rock
(40:40):
his home of Dodge and so on. Then, as I
said before, a good at needs to be meaningful, no nonsense,
and the lyrics are going to make it meaningful or not.
You know, I was mentioning one Republics connection or the
Renegade song that was all meaning. Then it needs to
be relevant. What made the magic of the Eminem campaign
(41:04):
is that obviously the lyrics and the alignment of Eminem
himself made the whole message relevant. And then, as I
said before, if you want to be relatable, you need
to think of your audience and who they relate to.
What I think is great about this coming full circle
about music is that I can totally relate to the
(41:25):
challenge that is breaking a new song. As a former producer,
I know how exhausting it is to promote a new tract.
Is slow, it's expensive, and it's always a very long shot,
which is exactly why the smartest labels are looking for
shortcuts and they come to us. They understand that I
will never misuse the creative work and do bad marketing
(41:48):
with it. But on the other hand, it's a win
win and it feels good because it's always about helping
a good cause. I mean, and that's back to my
French roots, about this romantic way to see a business,
music and culture differently worth helping. So Olivier, we've gone
full circle. We've gone from you started in music, you
(42:08):
had to get out of it to get a real job,
and you've come back to being this genius of marketing
and you're back to music. So let me end with
the way we always end every episode. We're gonna do
two things. It's back to math and magic. Think about
the analytical, the master of the numbers to run a
business the master of data. Who's the greatest mathematician you've known?
(42:31):
I would say you want Sebasin Bach. He made music
out of myth. Okay, we'll move to magic. Then, who's
the greatest magician you know? Not including you? Definitely you
want sea music out of love it? Olivier, Thank you,
thank you. Here are some things I heard in my
(42:52):
conversation with Olivier and Olivier's words. A brand, it should
make a statement. It should come with the purpose and
a promise to One of Olivier's tricks is to come
up with a soundtrack for every brand he manages. It's
a novel way to understand and communicate the spirit of
the brand. Three, don't run away from who you are.
Figure out how to make it work for you. Imported
(43:15):
from Detroit did exactly that. Thanks for listening. I'm Bob Pittman.
That's it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening
to Math and Magic, a production of I Heart Radio.
This show is hosted by Bob Pittman. Special thanks to
Sue Schillinger for booking and wrangling our wonderful talent, which
is no small feat Nikkiatore for pulling research bill plaques
(43:39):
and Michael Asar for their recording help, our editor Ryan Murdoch,
and of course Gail Raoul, Eric Angel, Noel Mango and
everyone who helped bring this show to your ears. Until
next time,
Host
Bob Pittman
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