Dive Brief:
- Porsche this week released a short film for its Taycan electric sports car starring actors Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, who appeared together in the "Bill & Ted" film series. The eight-minute film, titled "Going the Distance," shows the actors driving the Taycan through different challenges in Southern California, per information emailed to Marketing Dive.
- Each challenge demonstrates what the Taycan can do on a single charge, with Reeves and Winter also doing doughnuts on a track at the Porsche Experience Center in Los Angeles. As part of its effort to answer questions about the driving range of the Taycan, Porsche next month will release a five-episode series starring Bill Nye, the "Science Guy," who explains the engineering of battery-powered vehicles.
- Porsche is promoting the film with paid and organic teasers on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. The short film with Reeves and Winter is the first creative showing the Taycan since Volkswagen-owned Porsche ran a Super Bowl ad called "The Heist" in 2020, per press materials.
Dive Insight:
Porsche's short film starring actors Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, who first appeared together in the science fiction comedy "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" in 1989, aims to entertain and inform viewers about the luxury vehicle brand's Taycan electric vehicle. The average Porsche buyer in the U.S. tends to be an upper-income male who is about 50 years old, making the film a nostalgic throwback for its target demographic. By running teasers for the film on social media, Porsche may be aiming to build relevance with younger viewers.
The carmaker is among the automotive brands that have created digital videos to prolong brand exposure to prospective buyers. Lexus recently sponsored a video documentary called "Rubber & Sole" that showed how a group of designers created a customized sneaker inspired by the 2021 IS sedan. Mitsubishi last month revealed its 2022 Outlander on Amazon Live, marking the first vehicle debut on the e-commerce giant's livestreaming platform. In December, Hyundai-owned luxury brand Genesis sponsored an online cooking show produced by Tastemade that gave viewers a way to buy grocery ingredients from Amazon Fresh. These efforts show how automotive brands aim to cut through ad clutter by integrating their brands with original content.
Porsche is seeking to reach those buyers as the market for electric vehicles (EVs), which is currently dominated by Elon Musk's Tesla, almost doubles to 3.5% of all new cars sold in 2021, according to IHS Markit data cited by CNet. The researcher forecast that EVs will continue to boost their share to 10% of the market by 2025 as more carmakers introduce battery-powered models and the charging infrastructure continues to expand. EVs are notable for fostering loyalty, with 82% of current owners saying they "definitely will" consider buying another battery-powered vehicle in the future, market researcher J.D. Power found in a survey.
