CADILLAC
'Dare Greatly'

Cadillac was once the shorthand for luxury and topnotch quality. 
But it had lost its luster with consumers.
We rebooted the brand with 'Dare Greatly', an idea that meshed the entrepreneurial attitude of Silicon Valley with the fashion cool of downtown New York.
It served as a rallying cry for Cadillac's employees, and a signal to a new generation of customers that Cadillac had shed its fuddy-duddy image.

After working on the pitch at Publicis London, I was transferred to the New York office and tasked with helping bring the 'Dare Greatly' platform to life. 
We created a new tone of voice, built a content platform, introduced a subscription model, partnered with fashion designers, rolled out VR to dealerships, and put cars in the Entourage movie, along with making the odd TV spot and retail catalogue.

The Ads

We launched 'Dare Greatly' with a big 360 integrated brand campaign around the Oscars.
Unbranded teaser paste ups around New York, and a whiting out of all Cadillac's social channels in the week leading up to the big night.
And then, instead of showing cars, we unveiled a mindset.
Here's a too long case study

After that, we had to make the platform work for the new model launches.

Unfortunately the dealers didn't agree with the strategy for the XT5, so our spot was scrapped and re-filmed as a glorified brochure.

Our preferred rough cut:

We also made an ad for the V-Series, Cadillac's performance line.
GM sent the wrong model and didn't realize till an engineer saw the rough cut, so it got scrapped too 🤷🏽‍♂️. 

For this CT6 launch spot they had to change the body shape on the car for EPA reasons, so it got scrapped too.
(Sensing a theme yet?)

The Content

From the video screens within Cadillac House in TriBeCa, to set ups at auto shows, in-stadium signage, TV bumpers, special events, and of course, the Dare Greatly content hub we created, there was a constant need to create video, still and copy assets for use across a range of media.
Here's a tiny sample.

The Social

Every shoot was an opportunity to capture bits and pieces to be used as social posts. 

The Retail

And obviously, every quarter we made lots and lots of retail.