TSX69

2013 Acura ILX Commercials:
Equal Parts

Acura’s new slogan is that life should be equal parts responsibility and fun. That’s why the ILX needs to be a good clean sedan during the day and an enjoyable but responsible non-drunk drive during the night.

To better get the message across, two commercials were released. Called ‘Airport’ and ‘Office’, these are filmed in identical split screens where the Acura driver goes through equal parts of fun and responsibility.

The main focus of the car is placed on the luxury on offer, on the standard push-button start feature and exciting design. The ILX is also featured with a manual gearbox, even though very few people go for that option, and that’s because Acura wanted to convey the sporty attitude of the car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=jAx7EEL-gv4

You Tube

dominik331

Much better than the RDX ones.

spdandpwr

i like the ending of the airport one "move up, without settling down"...as someone native to this industry, I admit that it is genius, not going to lie.

TSX69

Acura Launches ILX with Gen Y Flavor

The new catchphrase in the luxury auto category is "gateway vehicle." It's all about having a car that can bring Gens X and Y into the luxury market at a level they can handle. BMW has one with the 1-Series; Lexus has the CS 200h; Mercedes will introduce the A-Class; Cadillac will have the ATX vehicle that comes in below the CTS and Infiniti is bringing its own entrant to market.

Acura's offering is the ILX, which starts at $25,900. The Torrance, Calif., luxury sibling of Honda is launching the vehicle with a new campaign from its U.S. agency of record, rp&. The campaign, which is also its biggest digital effort to date, uses music from The Ting Tings and Nick Waterhouse.

Susie Rossick, manager of Acura advertising, tells Marketing Daily that the digital buy will hone in on sites popular with 25-to-34 year olds. "We have upped our percentage of digital spend higher than we have ever done for Acura, because this group spends much more time online than Baby Boomers," she says. "So we're doing things on Pitchfork, Bleacher Report, and Mashable, for example. We are doing homepage takeovers on MSN and Yahoo." The automaker is advertising on Xbox Live, Pandora and Good, and showing creative on YouTube, as well.

The 2 TV and in-theater ads use a split-screen motif to show upwardly mobile Gen Y people building their careers and social lives simultaneously. On 1 side, you see them in airports, and corporate offices. On the other, they're at upscale resorts and nightclubs. In each ad, the character ends the journey in the driver’s seat of an ILX. “Life should be equal parts responsibility and fun,” says the voice-over. “Introducing the new Acura ILX. Move up. Without settling down.”

The spots make their TV debut with a national presence during the NBA conference finals on ESPN June 5, as well as the NBA finals on ABC on June 15 and 17. Cable TV includes networks such as G4, Spike TV, AMC and the E! channel. Rossick says they will also be in summer blockbusters.

Rossick says Acura is also partnering with a popular indie band that has a new album coming out this month (mum on the band’s name because the legal ink is still drying). Acura will be sponsoring their tour and will have vehicles on display at concerts. "This is the 1st time Acura has ever sponsored a tour. But it's a perfect time for us to reintroduce ourselves to a younger audience, and this is really our sweet spot," says Rossick. "It's where we do really well; and we are viewed [by Gens X and Y]as an aspirational brand."

Also on deck is a series of weekend experiential events in 5 cities. The program, aligned with Autoweek, will visit Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Chicago, and includes a ride-and-drive component. The automaker expects about 200 attendees expected per day at the events. Rossick says both the Autoweek program and the band sponsorship will have large social media components.

Facebook will be a small part of the digital buy, for the ILX campaign. Acura will put such content on its Facebook page as an app in development that will allow people to place themselves in the car using their webcam.

Acura_Dude

The commercials are good.

yungwunn911

is the ILX supposed to be the poor man's TSX??? I don't see how it fits in the acura line up...

TSX69

Acura Targets Viable GenY-ers with New ILX Sedan & Campaign

Automakers are spending a lot of time these days wringing their hands about whether economically beleaguered and automotively disinterested twenty-somethings will ever be willing — or able — to buy enough cars from them. So Acura has decided to bypass the angst and appeal mainly to the part of Generation Y that still has some financial wherewithal: consumers in their early 30s.

They’re the target for the brand’s new sedan, ILX. At prices beginning at $25,900 Acura is calling the compact ILX a “gateway” to the luxury segment for those who want and can afford to get on that track.

The ILX launch is important for Acura because the brand is still trying to recover its bearings after last year’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan crushed the sales momentum it had begun to build in the U.S. market. And, according to Acura brand executives, they’re still trying to capture a measure of respect.

“Even with restricted inventories, we still sold more cars last year than Lincoln and Cadillac and Volvo and Audi,” Mike Accavitti, Acura’s U.S. CMO, told me. “Audi gets all these accolades but we sell more cars than them. We’re 4th [in U.S. luxury sales volumes] this year even before high volumes of our 2 new products, ILX and [a new version of the RDX utility vehicle], have gotten onto dealer lots.”

Indeed, sales of the Honda premium brand are up by 11% for this year through May. But the comparison is against a weak year-earlier period. And Acura has some work to do to secure a wider long-term berth in the entry end of the U.S. luxury market.

“The brand has been struggling with what it is over the last half-dozen years,” said Doug Scott, senior vice president of GfK Automotive, a brand-consulting firm in Southfield, Mich. “The problem is that competitors like BMW and Audi, who already are younger and aspirational, are moving more into the more affordable area of the marketplace.”

It looks like they’ll have to fight Acura for some of those buyers: unmarried consumers who’ve achieved some stability financially. The new TV-advertising campaign for the car depicts an ILX owner with his life proceeding separately on 2 tracks, which literally are occurring in parallel on a split screen in the ads. In 1 spot, a track shows him in a corporate office, the other at play at hip nightclubs, and they meet when he gets into his ILX.

“Life should be equal parts responsibility and fun,” goes the tagline in both spots. “Move up, without settling down.”

“Our target is older Gen Y and young Gen X-ers, so we wanted to get them doing both things,” said Susie Rossick, Acura brand manager.

Accavitti explained that ILX “was specifically designed for these people because of what they’ve gone through,” Accavitti said. Growing up, “they’ve seen and experienced and touched luxury and wealth. So their expectations are there — but the realities of today’s post-recessionary economy are that this generation may be the 1st that actually ends up earning less than the previous 1.”

While that message seems less inspirational or even aspirational than sobering, Accavitti said Acura is positioning the car as “a special vehicle, with the feeling associated with that kind of car, but it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg to get into it. It’s designed for our target at this economic [time]. It’s smart luxury.”

For example, ILX has a voice-to-text system built into its infotainment capabilities that includes the capability for issuing pre-programmed responses — such as, Accavitti quipped, “Hey, I’m driving right now!” Pandora internet-based radio is another part of the car’s appeal. Other features include a standard 5-inch color display screen and an optional multi-view rear-camera system.

And as with anything explicitly aimed at Millennials, digital marketing and music are huge parts of the ILX push. Its TV and in-theater ads feature notable tunes from The Ting Tings and Nick Waterhouse. Acura is supporting the launch with its largest-ever budget allocation to interactive media, with placement scheduled on sites such as Xbox LIVE, Pandora and the (in-transition) web site that is Good.

The brand also is sponsoring a summer tour by an indie band — whose identity it won’t disclose just yet — that will span 5 U.S. cities and give lots of love to the ILX, including having the model on display at concert venues and the ILX participating in music videos. Acura also plans ride-and-drive weekend events this summer in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Chicago, with about 200 people expected to attend each day.

Will response to ILX be music to Acura’s ears? Accavitti is confident that ILX will help the brand get fully back on track; meanwhile, sales of MDX, its highest-volume vehicle, are about flat with a year ago, but the new version of the RDX, launched a couple of months ago, is 36% ahead of 2011 sales.

“We were on a roll prior to the natural disaster” last year in Japan as well as flooding in Thailand last fall that further complicated Acura’s supply lines. “We had 13 months of double-digit [year-over-year] sales increases. But once the inventory was so impacted, it was difficult to [sell] at that level.”

And, as Scott noted, Acura’s sibling brand, Honda, has been facing its own difficulties ushered in by the 2011 disaster as well as the shortcomings of its product lineup. “So at a time you’d hope the [Honda] company could focus on Acura and really get it right, the entire organization is having branding issues,” Scott said.

Still, Accavitti said that Acura has always appealed to a younger cohort, on average, than Toyota’s Lexus and Nissan’s Infiniti brands and noted that now the brand is focusing on amplifying that heritage advantage.

“Younger people are more open to the Acura brand,” he said. “They always have been. They value and respect our foundational values of quality and durability and that, as an investment, our cars hold greater value than our competitors’.”

Rossick agreed yet believes Acura can obtain a 2nd look from many of its target buyers. “We’re new and fresh and who these people are looking for,” she said. “We’re confident that we’re talking to this target.”

turbo_oxide

Looks like a slightly modified reincarnation of the 2009 TSX commercial...

afjock21

I'm not buying into these ILX commercials. Gimme a break! This car is for the 'cool hipster.' I'd rather save my money than run into one of these guys in the commercial driving the same car as me.

Oh, RDX commercial I think it is.. AWESOME. Tiny people cleaning and vaccuuming.. BRILLIANT!

afjock21

HELP! I can't get away from ILX commercials or advertisements, pop-ups... Acura must of dropped a few giant stacks of cash to feed the propoganda machine.

I'll admit that song is catchy.. great... now I'm off to buy an ILX. Well played Acura..

neuronbob

The ILX ads are pretty good.

Rocket_man

on the 1 July show on PBS.

musty hustla

since some gen y and most z don't want to drive, this is going to be a tough market to crack.

neuronbob

I agree. I was surprised to find that today's youngsters are not as much into driving as previous generations. I suppose Acura will have to convince young ones that a car is worth purchase in he first place in addition to convincing those same youngsters that an Acura is worth their first move-up car purchase.

I can't believe I called young people "youngsters". Gawd I feel old.

TSX69

Acura to Launch New ILX Ad During AFC Game

Acura is using Sunday’s AFC Championship game as a springboard for the new ILX sedan’s marketing campaign.

Acura may be sitting out the Super Bowl this year, but that doesn’t mean the brand is letting the high-profile NFL playoffs slip by without making a peep.

The 1st commercial for the entry-luxury ILX, “Bottle,” will air during the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts game. Acura says the commercial is part of the ILX’s larger "Catch it if You Can" campaign that will continue in the coming months.

The 2016 ILX costs $27,970, including shipping, and hits dealerships in February. ILX sales fell 13 percent to 17,854 vehicles last year. Acura sales rose 1.5 percent in an overall U.S. market that rose 6 percent.

“American Honda (includes Honda and Acura) has a multi-year agreement that allows us to have a larger advertising presence during the AFC game. So it makes sense to take advantage of that agreement with the launch of ILX rather than a Super Bowl ad for this launch,” Acura spokeswoman Jessica Fini wrote in an email on Saturday.

”This 1st ILX spot is a bit more brand focused and the subsequent ads will show more product/benefit attributes.”

Last year’s AFC title game drew 51.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen. In comparison, Super Bowl XLVIII attracted 111.5 million viewers.

Acura - 2016 ILX - Lightning in a Bottle - YouTube

The ILX spot “depicts an Acura engineer trekking into the wild during a driving rain storm to capture lightning in a Leyden Jar, a container that scientists used in the 1700’s to store electricity,” Acura said in a statement. “Having successfully captured a lightning bolt, the Acura engineer returns to his design laboratory to infuse the energy into the new 2016 ILX.”

Reset Productions director Johnny Green, who directed the 2014 Under Armour spot starring ballet dancer Misty Copeland that received more than 7 million views on YouTube, shot the ILX commercial with Acura’s creative agency Mullen.

The ILX push will leverage the digital space with “major online homepage takeovers” and messaging extension on social media.

“We are planning a Twitter card activation again -- which was very successful with the TLX launch,” Fini wrote.

According to Twitter, the cards give brands a chance to “attach media experiences to tweets” that link to their content. With the TLX launch last summer, Acura deployed cards that let people configure their own versions of the sedan within a tweet.

Colin

^^ First indication of price, let the games begin!

ILX .......................... $27,970
ILX +AcuraWatch .......
ILX Prem ..................
ILX Prem +ASpec .......
ILX Tech Plus ............
ILX Tech +ASpec .......

xedap1998

My guess/hope
ILX .......................... $27,970
ILX +AcuraWatch ....... $28,500
ILX Prem .................. $29,500
ILX Prem +ASpec ....... $31,000
ILX Tech Plus ............ $31,000
ILX Tech +ASpec ....... $32,500


+-500 for each package

Sandals

iTrader: (2)

I was hoping it would start less than 27K.

xedap1998

Civic EX-L is ~~23,500 with destination

Colin

No disrespect, but MSRP prices (almost) NEVER go down. It sends the 'wrong' signal and destroys your resale value. If you end up with a car that is 'over-valued' as the 13-15 ILX was, you can adjust with factory to dealer cash. Adding the amount of content they've added, and keeping the price static, really surprises me. I was expecting a $500-1000 increase to the base price. Unless they make the packages hugely expensive, this is really encouraging.

randomRon82

randomRon82

randomRon82

http://www.autonews.com/article/2015...mpaign-for-ilx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3FB6T4wOgc#t=25