Lucid ads and commercials

[Genghis]

I’d love to hear from someone who has actual knowledge and experience in Brand and Marketing for a Luxury Automobile company in its infancy weighing in here. Until then, we are just a bunch of owners (most of us anyway) that all have different preferences on where we see media and advertisements and different opinions on what we think “should” work. The Air was never meant for mass production and sales, so you’re never going to see it mass advertised where a majority of people that see it can’t afford to buy it.

Yes! Me too. Armchair QBing is fun to discuss but expert opinions can be enlightening.

 

[segbrk]

I don't know how much the sales numbers relate to advertising vs. demand...

Getting the name out there is important, yes. But it doesn't do much until there's a product people actually want. Looking around here (in a non-California market), I see Airs almost as often as I see a Model S or an S-class Mercedes. That is, not very often. Who wants an expensive, luxurious, fast sedan right now? Enthusiasts. Enthusiasts do research. Like me. I didn't find Lucid from ads - I've still never seen a Lucid ad anywhere in any form, probably in part because I block Internet ads at every opportunity. I found Lucid from car and EV enthusiast websites, where it is already prevalent. We're not talking about the average person on the street here, because the average person on the street: 1) doesn't care, and 2) doesn't want to spend that much, even if they can. They're going to get a more utilitarian, budget-friendly Model 3/Y or one of the standard Focus/Civic/Corolla-type cars.

I believe Gravity is going to do better. Gravity clearly fits what more people (in the US) want. It is that more utilitarian vehicle, with a price point that won't be a shocker to all the people around here I see driving giant cadillacs and range rovers. At that point some of what you're saying will be relevant, as non-enthusiasts will be drawn by, mainly, I think, the capacity-to-size ratio. I think that should be the primary focus of the ads, because that's the primary differentiator I see in Gravity. Lucid's efficiency focus is great and all, and will help settle some fears from non-EV drivers, but otherwise that's not a reason to buy Gravity over an ICE. I don't see mass marketing being really useful until the midsize is closer to production, because that's a car that the masses might actually buy. Assuming its packaging and range still live up to what we know from Lucid.

Anyway, all this comes with a big disclaimer that I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm even in that rare 25-35 range, so even if I could speak for my generation I wouldn't be the primary target here as you've been saying.

 

[xponents]

Lucid IS doing targeted digital ads. You are searching and writing and speaking about Lucid…you are also on YouTube….see how that works? Why it’s on your friends computers and devices is I’d imagine your device is on the same WiFi as theirs at some point. My husband searches things on his phone and computer all of the time, and you know who gets ads for it on Instagram? Me, who definitely doesn’t search for the new top of the line piece of golf equipment.

Okay, today I learnt that was even possible. Thanks! I do wonder though, how on a network with 6000 (!) people, I influenced every single person. Based on a quick google search, it says that this only goes into effect for networks with a small group of people. In addition, our school, to my knowledge, has blocked targeted advertisements with their network settings. I'll definitely do more research into this, and thanks for bringing it to my attention.

I’d love to hear from someone who has actual knowledge and experience in Brand and Marketing for a Luxury Automobile company in its infancy weighing in here. Until then, we are just a bunch of owners (most of us anyway) that all have different preferences on where we see media and advertisements and different opinions on what we think “should” work. The Air was never meant for mass production and sales, so you’re never going to see it mass advertised where a majority of people that see it can’t afford to buy it.

The same “Lucid should do more” comments followed by “But not like that” after they do is tiring. I don’t think they’re perfect, but I’m also smart enough to know there’s smarter people than me making decisions and I know they are having to figure out what works and what doesn’t as they go. They pivot when needed and they most surely have a strategy.

Agree, although I do wonder if we actually DO have anybody like that. Everything I have and am saying in this thread is just my opinion, and in no way did I mean to be an armchair QB! I am simply offering up reasons for why I feel the way I do and giving the possible negative repercussions I am worried about.

 

[joec]

I've seen nothing in Lucid sales figures that tells me their current ad campaign is succeeding.

Almost outselling Mercedes in their price class is no small feat. But point taken.

You won't hear arguments from me that their ads couldn't be better. I just don't think mentioning California is the problem.

Is Lucid doing a lot more ad buys in the California market than elsewhere? If not, then it's no more expensive to try to broaden the brand appeal beyond California by changing the ad content a bit.

I believe they are. At least, I've been told that California is an area of sharpest focus for the marketing team. And to me, the reasoning is sound.

I remember in the "beleaguered" years for Apple, I never saw a single ad for any Apple product anywhere near where I lived in Philadelphia. And all along the East Coast. But then I moved to San Francisco, (and remember this is long before the iPod, let alone the iPhone) and suddenly I saw Apple ads all over the place.

Whether or not Lucid could run slightly different campaigns in other markets? Sure? But again, it's not like the ads are saying "Hey, we're from California. Screw the rest of you.!" I really think watching a Lucid ad and being turned off by the California thing says a lot more about the person watching than the ad.

The last big commercial I remember for Lucid showed a couple driving to the Hamptons. Not exactly a west-coast message. Of course, that ad wouldn't have appealed to anyone in Florida, either.

I also think you're underestimating the size of the EV markets in some other states. The most recent EV registration data from the U.S. Department of Energy show that EV registrations in Florida and Texas together slightly exceed California registrations. And I can't think of two other states where "designed in California" would be a less appealing advertising strategy.
View attachment 19334

I'm willing to bet Texas and Florida grew as a direct result of Elon moving his headquarters to Texas and moving his politics sharply right. Although Texas in particular has way more liberal cities than most people realize. EV sales were likely already doing better than average in both states prior to this move.

Tesla's move might be good overall for expanding the EV market. But like I said, let Tesla do the heavy lifting on converting people to EV. That's the only way they can expand at this point, as they've saturated the California market.

Meanwhile, Tesla abandoning California opened a massive opportunity for young startups like Lucid and Rivian who also happen to be located there.

Two states is stil more expensive than one. Getting almost double bang for your buck by focusing on one state still looks like the cheaper and better play to me. Having said that, I am sure rates in California are higher than in Texas and Florida, so maybe there's reason to move some money there? I'd need to see more data.

The other thing to remember about California is that by 2035, 100% of the market will be EV-only. And it's phasing ICE cars out in the interim years, so the percentages are guaranteed to go up rapidly over the next few. That's not happening in Florida or Texas anytime soon. Having a very strong brand presence in the one state where ICE cars will no longer exist is no bad thing.

Again. I'm saying short term, focusing on California makes sense to me. This is not a lifelong strategy. And I really don't think the California thing is particularly heavy-handed in their ads, anyway.

 

[scal_air]

You’re a marketing genius JoeC!
Picture this - A couple getting into their Lucid saying “With an EPA rating of of 516 miles per charge, we could visit the Hamptons…Nah, we’re from California. Screw the rest of you - we’re headed for Sonoma!” I’m sure it would sell big……in California

 

[scal_air]

Mercedes does its advanced exterior design work at its Carlsbad, CA design studio. Have you seen what they've been coming up with lately?

View attachment 19332

Looks like a frog that choked as it was trying to cough. Just sayin' . . . .

Kinda reminds me of

 

[hmp10]

I’d love to hear from someone who has actual knowledge and experience in Brand and Marketing for a Luxury Automobile company in its infancy weighing in here. Until then, we are just a bunch of owners (most of us anyway) that all have different preferences on where we see media and advertisements and different opinions on what we think “should” work. The Air was never meant for mass production and sales, so you’re never going to see it mass advertised where a majority of people that see it can’t afford to buy it.

The same “Lucid should do more” comments followed by “But not like that” after they do is tiring. I don’t think they’re perfect, but I’m also smart enough to know there’s smarter people than me making decisions and I know they are having to figure out what works and what doesn’t as they go. They pivot when needed and they most surely have a strategy.

I agree with some of what you say. However, I have seen some very smart people make a very bad hash of things. (I'm thinking GE and Boeing here as recent examples.)

The advertising industry, in particular, has a very checkered history of success and failure in reading their audience that continues to this day. In the 1970's there was a trend to "intellectualize" advertising with some very creative campaigns such as a Hamlet monologue delivered to a can of 7-Up, and a man attending a counseling session with his upset stomach. These ad campaigns set off a competition in the advertising industry for each firm to get more creative, and commercials began to turn into entertainment forms unto themselves. But . . . as these campaigns failed to produce the sales numbers and focus groups got cranked up, it soon emerged that the ads were so entertaining that people were remembering the ads but not the products they promoted. (Just google "advertising misfires" to see how frequent the phenomenon of unintended consequences is in the advertising world.)

Frankly, I think a Lucid marketing manager trying to chart in a course would do as well --or better -- to read this thread as to listen to an ad pitch from an advertising firm. After all, we are the people who bought or already want to buy the cars. It's easier to find more customers who want the things the Lucid Air offers than to make people who aren't interested in those things want them.

 

[hmp10]

I'm willing to bet Texas and Florida grew as a direct result of Elon moving his headquarters to Texas and moving his politics sharply right. Although Texas in particular has way more liberal cities than most people realize. EV sales were likely already doing better than average in both states prior to this move.

You could also argue that Musk's move to Texas has something to do with Tesla's marked sales decline in California. But that just drives the point further home that a company would do well to avoid regional identities whenever possible.

I think one of the reasons EV sales have done well in Texas and Florida is a combination of factors: climates that do not pose range issues for EVs, income levels that can handle EV pricing, relatively more residents in stand-alone housing that can provide home charging, large cities with long commutes where EVs can be at their most useful, etc.

You mentioned in an earlier post that an inferiority complex in parts of the country might have something to do with reactions to Lucid's hyping the California connection. I think there's actually something to that view. I grew up in central Georgia, and there are very deep strains of resentment against things from outside the old Confederacy still coursing through southern culture. @borski mentioned that the current political divisions in this country are shifting and transitory. But I don't believe they are. Everything I see going on these days is nothing more than the social and political currents that coursed through my childhood 60 sixty years ago and that were suppressed by the Civil Rights Era breaking back through to the surface -- and actually spreading to regions beyond the old Confederacy. Will we suppress them again? Maybe. For a while. But I now realize they are part of our permanent national fabric.

With the Gravity looming and Lucid's dependence on it to bring them more into the mass market, I really think Lucid needs to confront the fact that they need to make the brand as non-regional in its identity as possible as soon as possible.

 

[Lucken]

Although I have no data to support this, I’d assume the EV market saturation in California is significantly higher than in other states and thus, less to be gained with large, local, advertising campaigns. Sure there are EV ‘tradeuppers’ in California that might be listening, but I’d certainly like to see a broader reach beyond.

I think people should also understand that there are conservatives out there that believe in and buy EVs. I know several. This is not a binary argument.

 

[borski]

The "move to AZ" I am talking about is how Lucid seems to be embracing CA in terms of marketing, but most of the actual action occurs in AZ near the factory (jobs and economy boosted there, Lucid day, Owners Rally, etc). To me, it almost seems like they want to be associated with CA and their tech forward rep (as you said) while doing most of the action (or at least to me, it seems that way) in AZ. You do have some points though, and I think both perspectives could be proven.

“Most of the action” is carrying a lot of weight there. All of the design, test, prototyping, and so on is done in Newark. It is *assembled* and *manufactured* in AZ. I don’t know how to be more clear.

Is this just a CA thing? Because I am very confused now, lol

No. Everything, everywhere, is ultra-politicized at the moment.

Okay, so by this point I think it is clear we agree Lucid shouldn't be political in its advertisements. However, what we disagree on is whether the bear makes things political or not, and even though only idiots will associate politics with cars, sadly a lot of these car buyers are idiots. I'm not naming certain states, but many extreme "red" states are like this (like Texas, as shown by my example).

Those same people you refer to aren’t buying EVs that aren’t a Tesla, because Elon has chosen *to* be political. They’re going to buy a Tesla, if they buy an EV at all, because he appeals to their politics.

That won’t always be true, but I’m not convinced that Lucid is missing out on many sales based on this.

 

[xponents]

“Most of the action” is carrying a lot of weight there. All of the design, test, prototyping, and so on is done in Newark. It is *assembled* and *manufactured* in AZ. I don’t know how to be more clear.

Very clear to me. It's probably very close to a 50 50 split to me, though. I still will hold firm on the idea that Lucid has had more of an impact in AZ than CA, due to the factory as you stated.

No. Everything, everywhere, is ultra-politicized at the moment.

Those same people you refer to aren’t buying EVs that aren’t a Tesla, because Elon has chosen *to* be political. They’re going to buy a Tesla, if they buy an EV at all, because he appeals to their politics.

That won’t always be true, but I’m not convinced that Lucid is missing out on many sales based on this.

True, but shouldn't Lucid be making every attempt at fixing that, no matter how minor, while not taking an actual stance (the removal of the CA branding could achieve that)?

 

[borski]

Correct. The thing that puzzles me is that not much people 35+ watch Youtube regularly, yet I see TONS of Lucid advertisements on the platform. Youtube is what you would advertise on if you want to target my age group. I even see the ads on my classmates computers, which proves that it is not just a targeted advertisement towards me and they are actively attempting to advertise to everybody on youtube. Regarding the ads themselves, they are all 30 second ads that are skippable after 5 seconds with NO hook in the start, and if you do watch the ad, there is almost no meaningful information.

• 379.7 million users aged 18 to 24 (15.0% of YouTube’s total ad audience)
• 522.5 million users aged 25 to 34 (20.7% of YouTube’s total ad audience)
• 422.0 million users aged 35 to 44 (16.7% of YouTube’s total ad audience)
• 303.0 million users aged 45 to 54 (12.0% of YouTube’s total ad audience)
• 222.2 million users aged 55 to 64 (8.8% of YouTube’s total ad audience)
• 227.7 million users aged 65 and above (9.0% of YouTube’s total ad audience)

Yeah, only half.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

For Lucid, no amount of marketing spending could have beat the way they came out of the gate winning award after award after award. I don't know how many of those awards happened with the help of a tactical approach on Lucid's part, other simply than the exceptional engineering and design that went into the process in the first place.

 

[xponents]

• 379.7 million users aged 18 to 24 (15.0% of YouTube’s total ad audience)
• 522.5 million users aged 25 to 34 (20.7% of YouTube’s total ad audience)
• 422.0 million users aged 35 to 44 (16.7% of YouTube’s total ad audience)
• 303.0 million users aged 45 to 54 (12.0% of YouTube’s total ad audience)
• 222.2 million users aged 55 to 64 (8.8% of YouTube’s total ad audience)
• 227.7 million users aged 65 and above (9.0% of YouTube’s total ad audience)

Yeah, only half.

This is a graph I found, which is close to your findings:

The first thing I'll note is that Youtube doesn't report age demographics for people below 18, which I consider a major group (just look at gen alpha for proof). Secondly, not a lot of the older people watch youtube on a regular basis, as younger people would tend to. You do have a point though, and I'm considering making a poll on where and how often people see ads about Lucid.

 

[borski]

In addition, our school, to my knowledge, has blocked targeted advertisements with their network settings.

lol. sometimes the things you say are downright adorable.

True, but shouldn't Lucid be making every attempt at fixing that, no matter how minor, while not taking an actual stance (the removal of the CA branding could achieve that)?

Focus. When building a business and sales pipeline, you can sell water to people in a desert who are thirsty, or you can work extremely hard to sell water to someone who lives on a lake. Both will make you money. The former is definitely higher ROI. Eventually, everyone will need water - but in terms of ramp? Sell to those who will buy.

Also, I’ll reiterate for the eighteenth time: removing the CA focus in the branding *is* making a political statement.

 

[borski]

The first thing I'll note is that Youtube doesn't report age demographics for people below 18, which I consider a major group (just look at gen alpha for proof).

Let me know when that age range can purchase a $70k+ car.

Yes, of course kids use YouTube. Kids also watch TV. A lot.

 

[xponents]

lol. sometimes the things you say are downright adorable.

No seriously, they do have settings for that and even Google has them built in (it probably won't do much knowing google, but oh well )

You do work in cybersecurity, so I am guessing that I'm completely wrong and look like an idiot to you LOL. You are probably the most qualified person here to answer that, so I'll leave it there as you're probably right.

Focus. When building a business and sales pipeline, you can sell water to people in a desert who are thirsty, or you can work extremely hard to sell water to someone who lives on a lake. Both will make you money. The former is definitely higher ROI. Eventually, everyone will need water - but in terms of ramp? Sell to those who will buy.

Also, I’ll reiterate for the eighteenth time: removing the CA focus in the branding *is* making a political statement.

I agree with the first paragraph, and it did give me some insight, but I still disagree do that the removal of the CA branding would be a statement. Most people in CA aren't extremists, and I doubt that would do much to make them feel it was a political statement. Now if the bear was a Lone Star emblem or something like that and it was removed, I would definitely agree with you. It's all about how the audience perceives it, I guess...

 

[hmp10]

For Lucid, no amount of marketing spending could have beat the way they came out of the gate winning award after award after award. I don't know how many of those awards happened with the help of a tactical approach on Lucid's part, other simply than the exceptional engineering and design that went into the process in the first place.

Which raises an interesting question: why isn't a small inset listing Lucid's key awards put in the corner of every ad page for Lucid? Motor Trend Car of the Year, Car & Driver 10 Best, World Luxury Car of the Year, MotorWeek Driver's Choice Award. (There are about a dozen others, but why gush?)

 

[borski]

No seriously, they do have settings for that and even Google has them built in (it probably won't do much knowing google, but oh well )

Ah, if there’s a setting then you must be right. Nobody would certainly ever try to work around that, because successfully doing so meant making more money. That would be “against the rules”

 

[borski]

Which raises an interesting question: why isn't a small inset listing Lucid's key awards put in the corner of every ad page for Lucid? Motor Trend Car of the Year, Car & Driver 10 Best, World Luxury Car of the Year, MotorWeek Driver's Choice Award. (There are about a dozen others, but why gush?)

Now, this I agree with