It seems that the product placement arrangement by GM in the record breaking blockbuster movie Transfomers Revenge of the Fallen have been generating some very positive hype, especially for Skids (or is it Skidz?). Already I have been asked a number of times by friends asking what's the name of the cute little green car? I know of people who previously couldn't care less about car brands or never even heard / knew Chevrolet existed on this side of the world suddenly noticing so many "Chevy bowtie" badged cars on the road.
Unfortunately despite the obvious interest from the public on the Chevy brand, there was very little follow-up from the local Chevy offices or regional GM-Asia Pacific offices. The only marketing effort done by the local Chevy JV HICOM-Chevrolet, is a chance to win tickets to Transformers movie by test driving a Chevrolet model. The ad was only played on radio, and there is no mention of this in the company website. Obviously there is a disconnect in the marketing channels used. Common sense will tell you that a movie ticket alone will not motivate one to drop by a Chevrolet showroom, which is not that many around anyway. People that do drop by the showroom for a test drive have already set their mind to visit it, with or without the free ticket. I would guess that a giving out Chevy branded memorabilia or even holding a blog entry contest would generate more buzz and cost less than a radio ad. Or even giving out Chevy Beat Concept T-shirts that people can wear to catch the movie. And since GM owns the design, there should not be any royalty fees to be paid to Hasbro or United Pictures right?
As mentioned in an earlier post here, the Chevy Beat Concept was first unveiled in 2007 as a trio of minicar design concepts. Internet votes were held and feedback from the public were gauged. The Chevy Beat was finally selected to be transferred into series production, as the new Chevy Spark, to be launched by 2010 in Europe, followed by China, India and other markets in Asia Pacific.
The Chevy Spark will also be sold in South Korea as the Daewoo Matiz. Daewoo Auto Technology is a South Korean domestic automaker that was acquired by General Motors in 2001, forming GM-DAT (General Motors Daewoo Auto Technology). The first photos for the production Spark were recently leaked out on to the Internet. The set of photos below suggest that this was taken during a press preview (which suggests South Korea domestic market launch is less than 1 month away) and some unethical journalist have broken the press embargo and leaked the images out. Or it could be one of Daewoo's own staff. Either way it is obvious they have a security breach.
Compared to the official photos released by GM during the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, the final production model seems to have the lines smoothed out further, or is it just the illusion given from the milder front fascia on this Daewoo badged version?
Wheel caps suggest that this is a cheaper base model.
Like the upcoming Chevy Cruze, a two-tone interior is featured.
More Transformers mania stories here.
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