Union Motors Group is gearing up for the competition in the electric car market and is bolstering its media efforts. A source has informed "Globes" that Union Motors subsidiary Geo-Mobility will market the Chinese car brand Geely in Israel and has chosen the media and advertising group K-Logic to manage the advertising account. K-Logic also includes the Hooligans agency, which will handle the creative aspects of the new brand. Orenstein & Hoshen will lead the media management in Israel.
As recently reported by "Globes," a wide range of Chinese manufactured electric vehicle models are expected to reach Israel over the coming year. Several months ago, Union Motors Group signed a cooperation agreement with Geely, as part of which it will also import the Geometry electric vehicle brand.
Gearing up for 2022
Geely is one of China's leading vehicle manufacturers. In addition to marketing the Geometry and Geely Auto brands, Geely also fully owns the Volvo brand and the Lotus sports car brand, and 50% of the Lynk & Co. car brand. The Group has 50,000 employees and owns 12 factories and five R&D centers in China, Sweden, the UK and Germany. Geely also has design centers in Shanghai, Gothenburg, Barcelona, Coventry and California.
The first car that will be marketed in Israel will be the Geometry C, a compact crossover sedan with an advanced electric engine and a maximum 204 horsepower, which can accelerate to 100 kilometers per hour in 6.9 seconds. Marketing is scheduled for the start of 2022, so the advertising budget has yet to be finalized but due to the major competition expected in the market, it can be assumed that a significant budget will be involved.
Union Motors is making special efforts to separate the handling of the different brands both in marketing and in advertising, as is the case, for example, with Lexus, Toyota and GAC. Here too a separation will be made between the electric vehicle brands and the other brands - in other words, a separate company, separate head offices and separate showrooms.
Toyota's advertising budget has been managed for many years by the TBWA - Yehoshua advertising firm. The Lexus advertising budget is managed by LH, which is partly owned by TBWA-Yehoshua.
The problem of the separation policy
Since Tesla launched in Israel, many car manufacturers have been gearing up, both Europeans and Chinese, to launch dozens of electric car brands in Israel by the end of 2022. This is apparently supposed to prompt major interest among the advertising agencies but in all likelihood not many of them will take part in the attempts to garner a share of the new budgets.
The reason is the separation policies being adopted by the vehicle import companies (not only Union Group) - in other words, the tendency to divide their car brands between several firms. In this way, the vast majority of the large advertising firms are already 'occupied' with this or that budget.
It should be mentioned that even in the absence of a suitable infrastructure for electric vehicles, and due to the fact that there already exists on the market alternatives like hybrid cars, this is a category that at least in the initial stages is not expected to register very high sales. Therefore, the budgets for it will be smaller than for the 'regular' brands.' However, the world is traveling in the direction of electric cars, and so in the long term, there will be a need to educate the market and the allocation of budgets for the topic.
Geely Israel marketing manager Gali Shitrit said, "The electric vehicle market in Israel is today on the point of coming to the boil, with the arrival of a number of electric vehicle brands. This situation requires us to make our brand distinct and strengthen marketing efforts, alongside a publicity campaign and advertising that will help us to push the brand into the awareness of the public at large. We see Orenstein & and Hoshen and the Hooligans and K-Logic agencies as strong and professional partners, who will help us to apply the marketing strategy that we will introduce."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on May 26, 2021
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