Jeep and Marvel launched “The Patriot Factor”
Patriot drive starts with NCAA tourney
Chrysler is also using a comic book and an interactive online site.
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The Chrysler Group is tapping into America’s love of March Madness, comic books and adventure to sell the Jeep Patriot, the last of the three new vehicles being turned out by workers at Chrysler’s Belvidere assembly plant.
Chrysler is launching its media campaign to coincide with the beginning of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, which begins today and runs until April 2.
Basketball fans will see sports-themed Patriot banners on a cornucopia of sports Web sites, such as ESPN.com, SportingNews.com and SportsIllustrated.com, and two Patriot televisions ads will air frequently on CBS Sports, College Sports TV, Fox Sports and College Hoops Network.But Jeep and Chrysler, adopting the new wave of media saturation, are going way beyond TV. In February, Jeep and Marvel comics unveiled “The Patriot Factor,” an online adventure comic book at patriotadventure.com where users are providing the story line.
And today, Jeep is introducing the online interactive film on the same site, “The Way Beyond Trail,” where you become the fourth member of a group of friends driving a Jeep Patriot while searching for buried treasure. There are 44 scenes ranging from 15 to 30 seconds where you help the group decide what to do. It’s possible to complete the adventure in fewer than 44 scenes, but many of the scenes are dead ends.
The advertising and online campaigns match the company’s theme for selling the Patriot, “choose your adventure.”
“The Jeep Patriot is targeted at young, active men and women who always wanted a Jeep but couldn’t afford one,” John Plecha, director of Jeep Marketing, said in a news release. “Now these consumers can choose their adventure in a Jeep Patriot because it delivers the Jeep experience at an affordable starting price — $14,985.”
The Patriot, which strongly resembles the old Jeep Cherokee, started rolling out of the Belvidere plant at the end of December, nearly a year after workers started putting together the Dodge Caliber. With about 3,600 workers, the plant is the Rock River Valley’s largest manufacturing employer. The Jeep Compass started production last May.
Dodge’s marketing team is selling the Caliber under the slogan “anything but cute,” while Jeep’s Compass campaign centers on the message “freedom in a whole new dimension.”
The three vehicles replaced the Dodge Neon, which had a 12-year run in Belvidere, and are being counted on heavily to lift Chrysler to profitability. DaimlerChrysler’s Chrysler Group sales slumped last year because of its heavy reliance on SUVs, trucks and minivans in a year when gasoline prices topped $3 a gallon.
The Caliber, Compass and Patriot are all capable, depending on the version you buy, of getting 30 miles to the gallon.
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