Chevy retires 'technology and stuff' after reaping publicity windfall

November 07, 2014 12:00 AM

Alan Batey: "The guys made lemonade out of a lemon."

Editor's note: Earlier versions misstated the amount of estimated free media exposure Chevy received from the Chevy Guy coverage.

DETROIT -- Chevrolet is sending #ChevyGuy and his #TechnologyAndStuff pitch to the showers -- but not before recording about $5 million in free media exposure.

That's the sum total of the publicity bump -- marketing execs call it "earned media value" -- that Chevy estimates it received from the viral response in the days following last week's botched Colorado pickup giveaway to World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner.

"The guys made lemonade out of a lemon," Alan Batey, global head of Chevrolet, said in an interview Thursday.

In the hours after Chevy regional zone manager Rikk Wilde stumbled through his 58-second handing over of the keys, uttering his now famous "technology and stuff" description of the 2015 Colorado, a few heads-up Chevy marketers seized the moment.

A tweet went out from the @ChevyTrucks Twitter account at 1:29 a.m. embracing the "technology and stuff" phrase. That began a frenzied effort by Chevy to flip the mushrooming Internet meme from a punch line to a marketing play.

The next day, Chevy and its ad agency, Commonwealth, scrambled to push out three, 30-second online videos the next day, about 10 days ahead of schedule. The spots were modified to include "and stuff" at the end of the voiceover.

A commercial ran that night during the broadcast of LeBron James' first game back with the Cleveland Cavaliers, along with airings on several late-night shows, including Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman.

Paul Edwards, Chevy's vice president of U.S. marketing, said traffic to Chevy's Colorado site jumped sevenfold in the days following the Game 7 giveaway. The Colorado hogged 70 percent of the "social share of voice," or the percentage of conversations about trucks that people were having online.

Chevy's marketing save culminated with #TechnologyAndStuff emblazoned on the side of pre-race Colorados transporting NASCAR drivers around the track before last weekend's race at Texas Motors Speedway.

The improvised campaign has officially been retired, Edwards said Thursday.

"We took our five days to leverage it and we certainly got the country's attention," Edwards said. "I think it's run its course. We don't want to look like we're behind on the joke."