I saw a Yeti advert on TV last night on Discovery 521 It is the first time I have seen the advert , is it new ? I always wonder why they don't advertise the Yeti more.

The Czech Coast Customs one?

 

It's actually a year old.

But I think it's only recently been shown in the UK.

A friend told me about this yesterday too.  I asked him what it was and it was this 2012 ad:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3kQ263YA6U

 

A very peculiar time to start an ad for a car that is just about to be facelifted.

It's only on very cheap channels-I've seen it on ITV3-at a time sponsored by Viking river cruises and running old detective shows.

Why spend money advertising a car for which you have a waiting list?  I suspect they are trying to ensure they get rid of any pre-facelift vehicles knocking around for whatever reason.  Get customers in the showroom and try to flog them what you happen to have there, probably at a discount.

I always wonder why they don't advertise the Yeti more.

Simple answer - they don't need to, like yetifabia says.  Especially with the kind of editorial coverage & owner survey results the Yeti has garnered over the last couple of years.

What's the odds on there might be a few pre-registered bargains to be had come late August - September-ish though? Or  handful of pre-FL ex-demo cars?

Simple answer - they don't need to, like yetifabia says.  Especially with the kind of editorial coverage & owner survey results the Yeti has garnered over the last couple of years.

What's the odds on there might be a few pre-registered bargains to be had come late August - September-ish though? Or  handful of pre-FL ex-demo cars?

 

Eh?  They don't have to advertise?!  KIA/Hyundai does advertise their crossovers and look at their sales numbers.  Nearly 390,000 sold in a year world wide compared to about 90,000 Yetis...  Ignore the countries that Škoda is not represented in and they still will outsell poor Škoda by 3 to 4 times - and that is with the Hyundai iX35 being one of the ugliest cars known to man!!!  

 

So Škoda can of course sell many, many more Yetis if they were to advertise it - be it in print or on TV.  BUT like a baker can't daily bake 10,000 loaves of bread from a domestic kitchen, Škoda simply does not have enough, or big enough, factories to make so many cars in...  Chicken and egg I think. Advertise and the waiting lists grow since your factory can't cope, don't advertise and just sell enough to keep the VAG empire happy...  Alas, as we know, it is clear which route VAG wants Škoda to take.  

 

"Zee, will not have any budget for advertizing, since we don't whant you to sell too many of those (too) good carz you make in Czeck".

Hyundai and Kia fell down the same "baking hole" with regards to orders massively outstripping capability.

The engine plant was at full capacity and they just couldn't fulfill orders.

Hyundai were basically giving santa fe's away at IX35 prices to bridge the gap.

Hyundai and Kia fell down the same "baking hole" with regards to orders massively outstripping capability.

The engine plant was at full capacity and they just couldn't fulfill orders.

Hyundai were basically giving santa fe's away at IX35 prices to bridge the gap.

 

I would have loved a Santa Fe at iX35 price!  That is a lovely car have to say.  But I've said as much before.  

That's what I meant Johan. They don't have the factory capacity to produce more, so SUK clearly don't feel the need to advertise to stimulate demand. At least not in UK / RHD drive form anyway. It's a marketing decision at the end of the day. In other territories the local marketing decision may be different? Perhaps I should have made it past tense?  "Haven't needed to" (much) until now?  In much the same way you don't see that many Veyron ads from VAG (- spurious comparison I know!). 

 

Sounds like Hyundai/Kia may have decided to keep on advertising, despite the demand outstripping supply. Or is that ahead of a dramatic ramp up in the number of RHD cars they already have scheduled or en-route to UK? Quite a proportion of their ads carry a very strong generic / brand message as well.  Perhaps they are using the ploy to advertise an already successful, "in demand" model to get punters unto the showroom, then sell them another, less well known model once they are there?  Wouldn't be the first car maker to do that, in an apparent logic defying campaign. 

 

In traditional marketing teaching (I'm talking 25 years ago now!), once a particular product becomes a cash cow, you cut the marketing spend to the bone, to maximise margin/unit. Nissan advertised the Qashqai to the max when it was a new product, especially on terrestrial TV. Once demand outstripped the ability of an expanded Sunderland plant to supply, they slowed the advertising, till around the time they expanded again to full 24-hour, 3-shift working. Then boosted the ads again when the facelift qashcow came out. 

 

The best products sell themselves, without advertising. It might be interesting see of the FL Yeti gets any UK ads this autumn?  Apart from that I suspect what SUK are doing at the moment is exactly what yetifabia said - a less expensive, lower profile campaign to help ensure they don't get left with too many pre-FL cars this autumn, that they would have to shift with heavier discounts?

 

I still think the Fabia "Cake" ads were one of the best ever seen on UK TV, for any product. Ranking right up there alongside the Honda ".....everything just works" campaign.  Both were as much about brand image than a specific model, despite the cake being Fabia shaped. (I have it from a person who was involved, and that I trust, that the Cake really was made by the way, not just clever/trick filming). Although the number of dealers who were inviting folk to come in and sample some free cake for a while after that campaign, they must have made made several dozen, not just the one..... :wonder:  

 

Another random thought is: "Could the advertising spend be related to the profit margin on specific VAG models?" Or related to long term ambitions for market position relative to other brands in the empire?  Do they make more margin on specific Audi and Seat models, in general?  Who knows, other than a select group of accountants in Wolfsburg?  That said, I would have thought the dealers are smiling at the prices they can shift on one-owner Yetis to punters like myself.  But that's the dealer's who benefit, not SUK.

 

Second guessing marketing men has always been a dangerous sport mind, prone to many "errors". Ask Murray Walker - marketing was his "day job"!  Lots of different ad campaigns.  For lots of different reasons?  I'll shut up now!

Edited 29 July, 201312 yr by FlintstoneR1

Could it be that they are trying to make up the reduction in new car sales in Europe by increased sales in the UK

"New car sales in the EU last month fell 5.6 per cent year-on-year as sluggish growth and high unemployment continued to sap demand, with Fiat, Peugeot-Citroën and General Motors hit hardest."

Can any of the 'pioneers' remember what the advertising level was for the Yeti launch (September 2009?)?  I wasn't really looking at motoring ads at the time. 

Can any of the 'pioneers' remember what the advertising level was for the Yeti launch (September 2009?)?  I wasn't really looking at motoring ads at the time. 

 

The original Yeti TV ad with some sort of yeti monster chasing the car through a forest was still being shown around April/May 2010 when I ordered.  Shortly after I ordered the ad was pulled.  Then in August 2010 the Yeti sponsored some crime drama on Channel 5 and that was it.

I think there was one around launch time based outside a house with rustling branches and a kid or 2 trying to find out what it was?

 

I think the headline was along the lines of "The Skoda Yeti.... it's out there"

 

But correct me if I'm barking up the wrong tree and have just made up an advert........

 

..... now there's a thought 

I think there was one around launch time based outside a house with rustling branches and a kid or 2 trying to find out what it was?

 

I think the headline was along the lines of "The Skoda Yeti.... it's out there"

 

But correct me if I'm barking up the wrong tree and have just made up an advert........

 

..... now there's a thought 

 

Yes that is the ad I'm on about.  Here it is (this is the LONG version that was reduced to 30 seconds for TV):

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkzPdaVDKac

Just found it, Johann was right, it was going through the woods, but I knew there was a kid involved.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZotBEu6Z-3Y

Just found it, Johann was right, it was going through the woods, but I knew there was a kid involved.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZotBEu6Z-3Y

 

That is the 30s version yes.

That is the 30s version yes.

 

Yep, I saw the 2 min + one but pasted the wrong link, still same boat different gravy 

A friend told me about this yesterday too.  I asked him what it was and it was this 2012 ad:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3kQ263YA6U

 

A very peculiar time to start an ad for a car that is just about to be facelifted.

I saw this one on Channel 4 tonight. But the car in the YouTube version (a Suzuki?) was replaced with a Skoda Favorit.

I saw this one on Channel 4 tonight. But the car in the YouTube version (a Suzuki?) was replaced with a Skoda Favorit.

Yes it's a late 1990s Suzuki Swift.

So the rest of the ad is exactly the same bar the car changing from a Suzuki to a Favorit? And why belittle a car from your own heritage?! Doesn't make sense.

The best ad I saw for the Yeti was on Top Gear, when Clarkson tested a Blue 1.8turbo, I think that did more for the Yeti than spending millions on a 30 seconds TV ad.

Actually for the "Czech Coast" ad. a Favorit would make (slightly!) more sense (to me anyway) than the Suzuki. Sort of "look how far the brand has come on" kind of message? And more plausible (if that were possible?) for the owner to think his old Skoda has transmuted/metamorphosed into a Yeti? The Favorit was from such a different era of Skoda history to be hardly connected in anything more than brand name?  It could lend a slight touch of plausibility to an otherwise delightfully implausible ad? :think:

 

I do like the multiple ironies and puns in the "Czech Coast" idea  .  As in Swiss Navy on one level. On another level it would perhaps go down particularly well in the North American West Coast market. Where "pimp my ride" was invented. On which thought - could that be the reason the Suzuki was used in some versions? Was the Favorit ever marketed in North America, so wouldn't be recognised there?  

 

Or could the switch be the result of a letter from Suzuki, asking not to belittle their former product? Or even just a re-statement of corporate policy about using other company products in ads, even if disguised to anyone other than petrol heads (de-badged & de-grilled)?  Thinking back a few years to the Ford ad, think it may have been for the early Mondeo, when ABS was just becoming commonplace on everyday cars?  The original film made in UK, showed the Ford driver braking and swerving at the same time, to avoid a (John Deere) tractor that unexpectedly pulled out of a field gateway into the path of the car.  After it was pointed out to Ford UK by the powers in Dearborn, that it was against corporate policy to display other manufacturer's products in Ford ads, the TV version was pulled. Then that sequence, expensively re-filmed using a Ford tractor in place of the Deere. Not so easy these days to "pull" an ad that's already doing the rounds on You Tube? :wonder:

Just noticed that Youtube now also features the "updated" ad mentioned above (the one with the Favorit instead of the Suzuki):

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hATv2Yc5J8w

Just noticed that Youtube now also features the "updated" ad mentioned above (the one with the Favorit instead of the Suzuki):

 

 

 

How peculiar.

There was lots of publicity when Yeti was first launched but no paid advertising on TV as far as I can recall, apart from ad mentioned by Preston and 900000.