Jeep Tries To Skew Younger With Patriot

Jeep’s new entry-level vehicle, the Patriot, is for the kids with an ad campaign to match, featuring artful stickers and backgrounds of both woods and beach on which to paste the stickers. The concept is pure Colorforms, a concept dating back to the ’50s in which thin plastic shapes could be stuck to a smooth cardboard surface.

The element will be part of a print insert for the Patriot, which is now arriving in dealerships. Broadcast and Web movies will share three characters, two males and one female, with a theme of “choose your adventure.”

A Web game will open on Thursday, allowing users to direct the characters through 44 scenes set in wooded areas, all the while showing off the features of the vehicle, including the iPod holder in the center console and the flip-down speakers in the lift gate.

Two 30-second broadcast spots and three 15-second spots will also be part of the mix, which will skew about 10% higher on spending on the Internet, said Jay Kuhnie, director of Jeep communications. Television will be about 55% of the spend, and Internet will represent between 22% and 25%.

“We still want to reach people in the traditional places, but we have other places we need to be,” Kuhnie said. The Patriot will also show up on interactive jukeboxes, for example, and in out-of-home displays in fitness centers.

“Our target here is young, from 22 to 30, with income between $25,000 and $40,000, a little more male than female, and just entering a new phase of their life,” he said. “They are just out of school maybe in their first job, moving out and trying to become adults. And they don’t mind being marketed to as long as you do it in an interesting way.”

The campaign is being done via BBDO, Detroit and Organic.

Jeep is also teaming with Marvel Comics in a contest called the “Patriot Factor,” allowing consumers to go to the Patriot campaign’s Web site, Patriot Adventure.com, and compose a story line for a comic featuring the vehicle. Those whose story line is part of the end product will receive co-author credit on a book of the Patriot Factor to be released later this spring.

The Patriot, the 4th new Jeep brand vehicle in the last 18 months, is the third car coming from the same platform, joining the Dodge Caliber and the Jeep Compass. The base price of $14,985 is aimed at starter buyers, although most consumers will end up shelling out around $20,000 for a reasonably equipped model.

There has been speculation among critics that the Patriot and the Compass—both lower priced models with similar attributes—would cannibalize each other in the Jeep stable. But in a recent interview with Brandweek, George Murphy, svp-global brand marketing for Chrysler Group, said that positioning is key.

“The trick here is to continue to communicate the Compass along the lines of fuel economy and unique design, and the Patriot will go back to the younger male compatibility and the bare bones, ‘gotta-fix-it-up’ interior. They are in two different places and have two different looks. One is more appealing for a female buyer and the Patriot will pull on the 4x4 heritage.”

Total ad spend for the Jeep Compass was $67 million, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Overall Jeep spent $360 million on ads in 2006.