July 19, 2022 • 13 mins
Bringing in a cat to act like a dog was the new “hmm” that Chevy Silverado needed. Jane Hussar, Chevrolet Silverado Advertising Manager and I discussed how it all came about.
Walter in Winter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3ta5Q3ITUc
Walter At the Lake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhFkPvfjs60
---
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Welcometo the Sound In Marketing podcast.
Today's guest is Jane Hussar is the ChevroletSilverado advertising manager.
I'm your host, Jeanna Isham, ownerand founder of Dreamr Productions
and Sound in Marketing Learning.
I create, consult and educate brandsand individuals on the power of sound
in marketing, looking to createbranded sound or need a sound strategist?
(00:28):
Head on over to www.DreamrProductions.comand let's chat.
That's www.DreamrProductions.com.
Want to learn more about soundand marketing these days?
Go to SoundInMarketing.com.
There's courses and resources galore.
Now on to the show.
Jane developed strategic multichannelcampaigns to position the Chevrolet
(00:50):
Silverado as the truck of choicein a highly competitive vehicle market.
Welcome to the show, Jane.
Thank you so much for having me.
Today, we're kind of focusingon one specific campaign that I,
my whole family got a kick out of.My kids, they're five and seven.
They have so much funwith this commercial.
But it's, Walter the cat.
And it is the most bizarre idea.
(01:13):
And it's so simple and fun. It'sso, so fun.
And the thing that just, like, gets meevery time is the song choice for it.
So, I was hoping that you could kind of,like, walk us through
where that came from.
Was it, like 3:00 in the morning?I was like, well, what about a cat?
Like, how did you come up with this idea?At Chevrolet
(01:34):
we do work with some very experienced
and dynamic, agencies,
and so we're lucky that we have thesegreat relationships and they just come up
with all kinds of different conceptsfor us to choose from.
So, yes, we love Walter to just as muchas our customers do.
And he is a lot of funand does all kinds of things like dogs do.
(01:57):
So, just it's it's been a lot of fun to,
see how everybody'sreally taken to Walter.
But I guess the way that he came about,
the way that we briefedthe agency, started out with
just really looking at youth and diversity
and taking the truck
creative and a little bit different of aof a light.
(02:20):
Right.
So typically truck is very traditional.
And we briefed them to say,look at we're looking to really
bring in a new, younger, diverse audience.
And then really focus onone single product message.
And so they took the audiences.
We were looking for the product,which was the multiplex tailgate,
(02:42):
and went to have some fun with it.
You know, they usually come backwith anywhere from 5
to 10 different, conceptsfor us to choose from.
And Walter the Cat was one of them. And,
really, really out there.
Right.
And for us right noweven took us out of our comfort zone
a bit like, wow, most of the time you seetrucks and dogs, right?
(03:06):
I mean, that's the traditional creativethat you see,
with, with trucks most of the time.
So this fun twist,bringing in a cat to act like the dog
and do dog like things,really jumped out at us.
And we always look for those things that,
make you go, “hmm” and make you go, “wow,that's really different.”
(03:29):
That's fun.
That's going to take us outsideof our comfort
zone and, and maybe bring in somesome new consumers.
I really appreciate that because,I'm not necessarily a truck person.
And this is likeprobably one of the first commercials.
I actually paid attention to it.
And one of the, one of the reasonsthat I thought this was generally
like what you're talking abouttraditional, like truck commercials,
(03:53):
you know, even take the dog out of it,you see, like rough and tumble,
like going through the desertand you've got, like,
this tough guy voice in the backgroundand you've got some rock music playing,
and instead you have this track,
what was it, rock Candy mountain.
It's so silly and lighthearted.
And then you put the cat into it,which is just like icing on the cake.
(04:16):
And so I see that you you definitelywere trying to draw in, someone else. Now,
where did the song come from?
Because, like,it just ties it so much together.
I just have to know
if you had any specifics, like,was there 20 songs and then you just,
like, landed on this one,or how did it work?
Yeah.
So kind of right like .
(04:39):
They come inwith, different music tracks for us now.
This was the first onethat they showed us with the concept.
Honestly, at first we were kind of like,
well, let's see what else is out there.
Let's, you know, let's get,you know, a different,
look at what what else is, being proposed.
(05:02):
And so I think we looked at,you know, five more tracks and nothing.
We just kept always coming back to bigRock, Candy mountain again.
It kind of has that fun,
whimsical, light tone to it.
And it's got a little twang to it.
So there is a little bit of thattraditional ness,
(05:23):
but yet fun and light,so it just all worked really well.
Let's go. Walter,
after you.
Walter 12:00.
Come on, bud, you're scaring him. Walter.
Walter.
One evening, as the sun went downand the jungle fire was burning.
(05:45):
Okay, last one came a whole night.
And you know, I'm not ready
for a land that's far away.
Besides, the crystal fountso come with me.
We'll go and see the big rock.
Candy mountain, That is incredible, I know.
Right? It's the multiflex tailgate.
(06:06):
It can be a step you can extend.
The bed can even become a workspace
I meant the cat.
What's so great about him?He didn't have a workspace.
He's a cat.
The Chevy Silveradowith the available multiflex tailgate.
Walter, go get some firewood, findnew adventures, find new roads Chevrolet.
So I saw some stuff in therethat I just wanted to to bring up.
(06:29):
And, just the end part,even the the VO for the man
speaking at the end, he's not soft spoken,
but he's not like man's man.
He's he's got this, like,calming ness to him.
So it was just very,very interesting to me that you,
you completely took thisin a different, situation.
And I think that the first Walter, the Cat
(06:50):
one that I saw actually,was when he was fetching in the the river.
That was the first onethat I that caught it in my head.
But I was just trying toto listen to it and go,
this almost would translate to radio.
Like, I think you would only needa couple of more like sound effects
and maybe a little bit more explanation,which is kind of cool.
(07:13):
And I'm just curious if that would besomething that you would be exploring.
Or is this just a TV specific commercial?
Yeah.
So this specificallywas just for broadcast.
But I mean, we have it's
we have used bits and pieces and,
running footage and
clips from it within social and, you know,
(07:36):
different CRM videos and,you know, different mediums and channels.
So it has gone across all different,
areas and mediums and sound and no sound.
So it was not made for radio.
But like you said,I mean, definitely something,
that we could do if in the future.
(07:56):
We took itjust strictly from a sound perspective.
You can't just copy and pastea TV commercial into a radio commercial.
But listening and looking at this, it'skind of fun to see that
there is possibility that you could takesomething like this and use
radio,since it's such a a powerful medium.
Still, it's still thatradio is still king in my in my opinion.
(08:19):
Oh, absolutely.
And we do you know, we do radio as well.
So it's not that we don't, it's that,you know, this was specific for,
for broadcast.
You know,we spend a lot of time in edit with sound,
you know, so again,the agencies that we work with
and the creative teams are phenomenalin matching up the scenes with the music.
(08:41):
So again, all very thoughtfuland everything that we do from
a sound perspective.
And how has your audience reacted to it?
What has beenthe feedback that you've gotten?
Well, you are our consumer, right?
And so just exactly how you explained it,I think,
so from the metrics that we've seen,I mean, it's it's been great.
(09:05):
It's been hugely successful.
People are relating to it
again, may not be truck consumers,but they see the fun in it
and they see the light heartedness and,and and just like you said, you know,
you're not a truck buyer per se,but it just you gravitated to it.
And I think music playsa really big part in that.
(09:28):
It doesn't always have to, but it can.
And in music people just relate to it.
Memories come up and,I think it just makes it really memorable,
and recognizable.
We had the first Walter the Cat, the Lake,
and we were able to use the same musictrack
(09:49):
in the second Walter and Winterfor that memorability.
And that recognition.
And I think people just really gravitatedto it and had fun with it.
And, we're seeing great success with it.
You want to go out, Walter?
Let's go.
Pace yourself.
(10:11):
You call that defense?
Make it quick, buddy.
One evening as the sun went down, that shouldshed some light on the subject.
Burning.
You get that going, right?
And I like turning.
I do it again. A package for. Yeah.
No no no no nono, Walter, he's a civil servant.
(10:36):
In the mountains, in the big Rock candy mountain.
That's incredible.
Oh, yeah.
It's a Chevy Silverado trail, boss.
This things built for off roading.Right from the factory.
Oh, I meant the cat. It’s like nobody’s ever seen a cat before
the Chevy Silverado trail. Boss.
Walter, let's get this man some hot cocoa.
Oh, that sounds good.
Find new friends,find new roads. Chevrolet.
(10:57):
We were actually ableto do some merchandise along with it,
which was a lot of fun.
So we had a so nice, sir.
Yeah, we had a stuffed Walter cat, and,you know,
he had a little, bandana around his neck.
We had a couple T-shirts and a coffee mug.
Again, hugely successful.
We found our dealer body.
(11:18):
Really gravitated towards the merchandise,for their consumers.
So it's been reallyfun. That is really fun.
And in the, in the pastfor other campaigns that you've worked on
because you've, you've obviously workedfor for GM for a little bit.
What,
how much has music and sound playedinto the campaigns that you've been doing?
(11:40):
Is it is it more an icing on the cake,or is it really,
something that you're, you're playingwith as you're developing?
I would say it's somethingthat we, we play with
as we're developingthe track doesn't always have to be
something that stands outas much as it did, I think, for Walter.
(12:01):
But music definitely always plays a partand we are always listening to,
you know, multiple versions
of different tracksand trying to land on the right tone
and feel for the messages that we'retrying to get across to our consumers.
And again, like I mentioned,we're trying to really speak
to that more younger, diverse audience.
(12:24):
And I think the way to dothat is through music,
because it is so generational and,
you know, different musicrelates to different people.
I hope you're enjoying the show.
Don't forget to subscribeon all the major podcast channels, share
with friends, follow and rate.
Spread the word because, well,more people should know about this stuff.
(12:45):
I know you know that. Now.
For any other inquiries, you can find meon LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
You can also email me at Jeanna@DreamrProductions.com.
All links will be provided in the show.
Notes.
Let's make this world of soundmore intriguing, more unique, and more
and more on brand.
Welcometo the Sound In Marketing podcast.
Today's guest is Jane Hussar is the ChevroletSilverado advertising manager.
I'm your host, Jeanna Isham, ownerand founder of Dreamr Productions
and Sound in Marketing Learning.
I create, consult and educate brandsand individuals on the power of sound
in marketing, looking to createbranded sound or need a sound strategist?
(00:28):
Head on over to www.DreamrProductions.comand let's chat.
That's www.DreamrProductions.com.
Want to learn more about soundand marketing these days?
Go to SoundInMarketing.com.
There's courses and resources galore.
Now on to the show.
Jane developed strategic multichannelcampaigns to position the Chevrolet
(00:50):
Silverado as the truck of choicein a highly competitive vehicle market.
Welcome to the show, Jane.
Thank you so much for having me.
Today, we're kind of focusingon one specific campaign that I,
my whole family got a kick out of.My kids, they're five and seven.
They have so much funwith this commercial.
But it's, Walter the cat.
And it is the most bizarre idea.
(01:13):
And it's so simple and fun. It'sso, so fun.
And the thing that just, like, gets meevery time is the song choice for it.
So, I was hoping that you could kind of,like, walk us through
where that came from.
Was it, like 3:00 in the morning?I was like, well, what about a cat?
Like, how did you come up with this idea?At Chevrolet
(01:34):
we do work with some very experienced
and dynamic, agencies,
and so we're lucky that we have thesegreat relationships and they just come up
with all kinds of different conceptsfor us to choose from.
So, yes, we love Walter to just as muchas our customers do.
And he is a lot of funand does all kinds of things like dogs do.
(01:57):
So, just it's it's been a lot of fun to,
see how everybody'sreally taken to Walter.
But I guess the way that he came about,
the way that we briefedthe agency, started out with
just really looking at youth and diversity
and taking the truck
creative and a little bit different of aof a light.
(02:20):
Right.
So typically truck is very traditional.
And we briefed them to say,look at we're looking to really
bring in a new, younger, diverse audience.
And then really focus onone single product message.
And so they took the audiences.
We were looking for the product,which was the multiplex tailgate,
(02:42):
and went to have some fun with it.
You know, they usually come backwith anywhere from 5
to 10 different, conceptsfor us to choose from.
And Walter the Cat was one of them. And,
really, really out there.
Right.
And for us right noweven took us out of our comfort zone
a bit like, wow, most of the time you seetrucks and dogs, right?
(03:06):
I mean, that's the traditional creativethat you see,
with, with trucks most of the time.
So this fun twist,bringing in a cat to act like the dog
and do dog like things,really jumped out at us.
And we always look for those things that,
make you go, “hmm” and make you go, “wow,that's really different.”
(03:29):
That's fun.
That's going to take us outsideof our comfort
zone and, and maybe bring in somesome new consumers.
I really appreciate that because,I'm not necessarily a truck person.
And this is likeprobably one of the first commercials.
I actually paid attention to it.
And one of the, one of the reasonsthat I thought this was generally
like what you're talking abouttraditional, like truck commercials,
(03:53):
you know, even take the dog out of it,you see, like rough and tumble,
like going through the desertand you've got, like,
this tough guy voice in the backgroundand you've got some rock music playing,
and instead you have this track,
what was it, rock Candy mountain.
It's so silly and lighthearted.
And then you put the cat into it,which is just like icing on the cake.
(04:16):
And so I see that you you definitelywere trying to draw in, someone else. Now,
where did the song come from?
Because, like,it just ties it so much together.
I just have to know
if you had any specifics, like,was there 20 songs and then you just,
like, landed on this one,or how did it work?
Yeah.
So kind of right like .
(04:39):
They come inwith, different music tracks for us now.
This was the first onethat they showed us with the concept.
Honestly, at first we were kind of like,
well, let's see what else is out there.
Let's, you know, let's get,you know, a different,
look at what what else is, being proposed.
(05:02):
And so I think we looked at,you know, five more tracks and nothing.
We just kept always coming back to bigRock, Candy mountain again.
It kind of has that fun,
whimsical, light tone to it.
And it's got a little twang to it.
So there is a little bit of thattraditional ness,
(05:23):
but yet fun and light,so it just all worked really well.
Let's go. Walter,
after you.
Walter 12:00.
Come on, bud, you're scaring him. Walter.
Walter.
One evening, as the sun went downand the jungle fire was burning.
(05:45):
Okay, last one came a whole night.
And you know, I'm not ready
for a land that's far away.
Besides, the crystal fountso come with me.
We'll go and see the big rock.
Candy mountain, That is incredible, I know.
Right? It's the multiflex tailgate.
(06:06):
It can be a step you can extend.
The bed can even become a workspace
I meant the cat.
What's so great about him?He didn't have a workspace.
He's a cat.
The Chevy Silveradowith the available multiflex tailgate.
Walter, go get some firewood, findnew adventures, find new roads Chevrolet.
So I saw some stuff in therethat I just wanted to to bring up.
(06:29):
And, just the end part,even the the VO for the man
speaking at the end, he's not soft spoken,
but he's not like man's man.
He's he's got this, like,calming ness to him.
So it was just very,very interesting to me that you,
you completely took thisin a different, situation.
And I think that the first Walter, the Cat
(06:50):
one that I saw actually,was when he was fetching in the the river.
That was the first onethat I that caught it in my head.
But I was just trying toto listen to it and go,
this almost would translate to radio.
Like, I think you would only needa couple of more like sound effects
and maybe a little bit more explanation,which is kind of cool.
(07:13):
And I'm just curious if that would besomething that you would be exploring.
Or is this just a TV specific commercial?
Yeah.
So this specificallywas just for broadcast.
But I mean, we have it's
we have used bits and pieces and,
running footage and
clips from it within social and, you know,
(07:36):
different CRM videos and,you know, different mediums and channels.
So it has gone across all different,
areas and mediums and sound and no sound.
So it was not made for radio.
But like you said,I mean, definitely something,
that we could do if in the future.
(07:56):
We took itjust strictly from a sound perspective.
You can't just copy and pastea TV commercial into a radio commercial.
But listening and looking at this, it'skind of fun to see that
there is possibility that you could takesomething like this and use
radio,since it's such a a powerful medium.
Still, it's still thatradio is still king in my in my opinion.
(08:19):
Oh, absolutely.
And we do you know, we do radio as well.
So it's not that we don't, it's that,you know, this was specific for,
for broadcast.
You know,we spend a lot of time in edit with sound,
you know, so again,the agencies that we work with
and the creative teams are phenomenalin matching up the scenes with the music.
(08:41):
So again, all very thoughtfuland everything that we do from
a sound perspective.
And how has your audience reacted to it?
What has beenthe feedback that you've gotten?
Well, you are our consumer, right?
And so just exactly how you explained it,I think,
so from the metrics that we've seen,I mean, it's it's been great.
(09:05):
It's been hugely successful.
People are relating to it
again, may not be truck consumers,but they see the fun in it
and they see the light heartedness and,and and just like you said, you know,
you're not a truck buyer per se,but it just you gravitated to it.
And I think music playsa really big part in that.
(09:28):
It doesn't always have to, but it can.
And in music people just relate to it.
Memories come up and,I think it just makes it really memorable,
and recognizable.
We had the first Walter the Cat, the Lake,
and we were able to use the same musictrack
(09:49):
in the second Walter and Winterfor that memorability.
And that recognition.
And I think people just really gravitatedto it and had fun with it.
And, we're seeing great success with it.
You want to go out, Walter?
Let's go.
Pace yourself.
(10:11):
You call that defense?
Make it quick, buddy.
One evening as the sun went down, that shouldshed some light on the subject.
Burning.
You get that going, right?
And I like turning.
I do it again. A package for. Yeah.
No no no no nono, Walter, he's a civil servant.
(10:36):
In the mountains, in the big Rock candy mountain.
That's incredible.
Oh, yeah.
It's a Chevy Silverado trail, boss.
This things built for off roading.Right from the factory.
Oh, I meant the cat. It’s like nobody’s ever seen a cat before
the Chevy Silverado trail. Boss.
Walter, let's get this man some hot cocoa.
Oh, that sounds good.
Find new friends,find new roads. Chevrolet.
(10:57):
We were actually ableto do some merchandise along with it,
which was a lot of fun.
So we had a so nice, sir.
Yeah, we had a stuffed Walter cat, and,you know,
he had a little, bandana around his neck.
We had a couple T-shirts and a coffee mug.
Again, hugely successful.
We found our dealer body.
(11:18):
Really gravitated towards the merchandise,for their consumers.
So it's been reallyfun. That is really fun.
And in the, in the pastfor other campaigns that you've worked on
because you've, you've obviously workedfor for GM for a little bit.
What,
how much has music and sound playedinto the campaigns that you've been doing?
(11:40):
Is it is it more an icing on the cake,or is it really,
something that you're, you're playingwith as you're developing?
I would say it's somethingthat we, we play with
as we're developingthe track doesn't always have to be
something that stands outas much as it did, I think, for Walter.
(12:01):
But music definitely always plays a partand we are always listening to,
you know, multiple versions
of different tracksand trying to land on the right tone
and feel for the messages that we'retrying to get across to our consumers.
And again, like I mentioned,we're trying to really speak
to that more younger, diverse audience.
(12:24):
And I think the way to dothat is through music,
because it is so generational and,
you know, different musicrelates to different people.
I hope you're enjoying the show.
Don't forget to subscribeon all the major podcast channels, share
with friends, follow and rate.
Spread the word because, well,more people should know about this stuff.
(12:45):
I know you know that. Now.
For any other inquiries, you can find meon LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
You can also email me at Jeanna@DreamrProductions.com.
All links will be provided in the show.
Notes.
Let's make this world of soundmore intriguing, more unique, and more
and more on brand.
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