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Ford named Marketer of the Year by Advertising Age

Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, Ford

Ford has been named Advertising Age magazine’s Marketer of the Year for 2010. The full-court press that the Blue Oval team has been applying continues to pay off, with $4.7 billion in profit for the first half of 2010 – a 17-percent boost over 2009 and the biggest company payday since 1998. No single part of Ford’s strategy is a selfish star player; Jim Farley, Ford’s vice president of global marketing has plotted a course for combining disciplines since his arrival in Dearborn.

The positive impression Ford’s foregoing of federal TARP funds had on the public is the kind of PR coup you couldn’t ever buy, and it continues to resonate positively with the public. According to a report, fifty-five percent of consumers surveyed still cite the company’s ability to secure its own lines of credit as a reason for considering Ford vehicles above other brands. Shrewd PR moves aren’t the whole story, though. Social media savvy launch campaigns for the Explorer and Fiesta have played into the decision to honor Farley’s efforts, too.

All the clever and effective marketing in the world won’t help if the product isn’t compelling, however, and that’s been a key piece of the puzzle for Ford. The string of hits includes the Edge, Mustang and Fusion, as well as technology like the ever-evolving SYNC infotainment system that has helped put this domestic automaker back on consumers’ radars. Popular spokespeople like the Discovery Channel’s Mike Rowe (shown above) haven’t hurt either.

Roll all of these factors up into a Blue Oval-shaped bundle, and you have AdAge’s Marketer of the Year.

[Source: Advertising Age]

Ford named Marketer of the Year by Advertising Age originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UCS: Honda remains Greenest Automaker, Chrysler named Most Polluting

Filed under: Etc., Chrysler, Honda

Honda Insight cutaway

In 2009, Business Car claimed that Toyota was still the world’s greenest automaker. That same year, the folks at Dow Jones named BMW the greenest automaker for the fifth time in a row. Apparently, an organization’s methodology has a lot to do with automakers winning titles like this over and over, since the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has just bestowed the Greenest Automaker Award on Honda, again for the fifth time in a row (the last time the award was given was in 2007).

At least this time, the race was close: Toyota and Hyundai (which lays claim to the most fuel-efficient automaker in the U.S.) tied for second, and their rankings were just a single point behind Honda. The most polluting automaker? Chrysler, but both Ford and General Motors were contenders for the title – blame their heavy mix of body-on-frame trucks.

The UCS ranks automakers based on the scores of their “smog-forming and greenhouse gas emissions (primarily CO2) in its U.S. automobile fleet.” The 2010 award was based on model year 2008 data, the most recent information that was available for analysis. You can read a summary of the report here (PDF) or just get the whole thing (PDF).

[Sources: Union of Concerned Scientists, Honda]

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UCS: Honda remains Greenest Automaker, Chrysler named Most Polluting originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 08 Oct 2010 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf named ‘Breakthrough Products’ by Popular Mechanics

Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Hatchback, Chevrolet, Nissan, Electric

Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf

It looks like Popular Mechanics had room for two vehicles this year on its annual “Top Products” awards list. Both the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf were named Breakthrough Products for 2010. PM praised the ride quality and technology of the Volt, stating that it’s “more than the sum of its cutting-edge parts.” In addition, the publication prominently touted the Volt’s range-extending abilities, possibly as a jab at the other winner.

The magazine still had some love left for the Leaf, though, calling it, “a pure EV with space for five, a moderate price and enough range for most tasks – plus, an operating cost that’s irresistibly low.” The Leaf does not do any one thing that hasn’t been done before, but Nissan has combined a lot of features together in a mass-market-ready package that has already resulted in 20,000 pre-orders in the U.S. alone.

Contrary to PM’s 2008 Breakthrough car (Click to see what it is. Hint: it’s a three-wheeled electric vehicle), you will actually be able to buy both of these 2010 cars the same year they’ve been acclaimed, a nice change of pace in this uncertain world. To see the rest of Popular Mechanics‘ Top Products of 2010, click here.

[Source: Popular Mechanics]

Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf named ‘Breakthrough Products’ by Popular Mechanics originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 17:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Audi S4 named Esquire Car of the Year [w/video]

Filed under: Etc.

2010 Audi S4 - Esquire 2010 COTY

Esquire’s 2010 COTY is the 2010 Audi S4 – Click above to watch video after the jump

Esquire, the purveyor of printed pages packed with ads and male-centric eye-candy, has released its list of 2010 automotive award winners. The top award is the Car of the Year and the magazine is handing that title to the 2010 Audi S4. Esquire makes a strong statement behind its reasoning, and it’s hard to argue with its logic.

Numbers and stats are starting points, but we believe that the Esquire Car of the Year should make you feel something deep in your gut. You should lust for it and dream about it, but it shouldn’t be an impossible goal. It must be attainable for the average man. It should sit in front of your house or office without drawing attention to itself and tackle four seasons of day-to-day transportation with ease. Yet crucially, sometimes, without warning, it must make you snatch the keys off the wall, haul off to the country and just drive.

After putting our own butts in the driver’s seat, we felt the B8 S4 was a wonderful leap forward over the past B6 and B7 iterations, particularly with the new supercharged V6 and trick torque vectoring sport differential.

Esquire hands out more than just a COTY award as well. The magazine scoured the current crop of automotive excellence and handed out check pluses for: Domestic Car of the Year, Hybrid of the Year, Most Awe-Inspiring Car Built This Year, Compact Car of the Year, Most Beautiful Car of the Year, Truck of the Year, Diesel Car of the Year, Best Foreign Comeback, Best Domestic Comeback and Best Expression of Automotive Passion. Who wins? You’re going to have to make the jump to find out. And there’s a nice little video of the Audi S4 happily accepting its award.

Gallery: Review: 2010 Audi S4

Photos copyright (C)2009 Damon Lavrinc / Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: Esquire]

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Audi S4 named Esquire Car of the Year [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 13 Sep 2010 18:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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1941 Tatra T87 named The New York Times’ Collectible Car of the Year

Filed under: Classics, Sedan, Etc., Europe

The web has spoken and a 1941 Tatra T87 has been voted The New York Times 2010 Collectible Car of the Year. The rear-engined, air-cooled V8 Tatra beat 30 finalists (overall, there were 651 entrants), including noteworthy cars from Packard and Checker. The T87’s owner, Paul Greenstein, was shocked to hear that his car – one of three Tatras he owns – came out on top. Greenstein says the Tatra has a unique allure that can’t be matched by other manufacturers. For Americans, rarity factors into that, as the Czech marque was never sold in the United States.

Greenstein picked up his car in 2001 for the princely sum of $8,000. At the time, the fin wasn’t in show-quality condition, so he had the T87 shipped to the Czech Republic for a full restoration. Fringe benefits of having the work done in the old country included cheap labor and parts availability that couldn’t be matched in the U.S. Three-and-a-half years and $60,000 later, Greenstein and his girlfriend had their T87 back. Don’t scoff at the cost; recent examples have sold at auction for as much as $125,000. Fortunately, the Times’ Collectible Car of the Year award includes a $5,000 check along with the trophy.

Head over to the The New York Times to read the full story, and be sure to also visit Clunkbucket for a few shots of Paul Greenstein’s T87 taken prior to its restoration.

[Source: The New York Times | Image: Clunkbucket]

1941 Tatra T87 named The New York Times’ Collectible Car of the Year originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Chung, Mullaly, Winterkorn named top car company CEOs

Filed under: Ford, Hyundai, Volkswagen

Automotive News has put together its list of 2010 auto industry all-stars, and taking first place in American, European and Asian CEO categories are Ford CEO Alan Mulally, Volkswagen CEO Dr. Martin Winterkorn, and Hyundai-Kia CEO Chung Mong-koo. Hard to fault the choices, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise at all that the same three gentlemen took slots two through four of Motor Trend‘s list of top 50 auto execs for 2009.

Mulally was cited because his “steadfast plan to turn Ford around is bearing fruit in impressive fashion” and Chung was lauded for having ” turned the Hyundai brand into a superpower.” Winterkorn, who could have been awarded based on VW’s Hulk-like growth, was actually noted for his “Strategy 2018,” by which time he plans for the VW group to be selling ten million cars per year. Check this spot in eight years to see if he’s still an all-star. For now, though, congrats to all.

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req’d.]

Report: Chung, Mullaly, Winterkorn named top car company CEOs originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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