Saturday, January 12, 2008

New Dodge Ram to run with bulls

Chrysler hopes to corral media attention with cattle stampede in downtown Detroit.
Eric Morath / The Detroit News

Yee-haw! Downtown Detroit will become the Wild West on Sunday as Chrysler LLC stampedes a herd of cattle through the streets as part of the unveiling of its new 2009 Dodge Ram pickup.

The cattle will run east down Congress Street and then in front of Cobo Center along Washington Boulevard at about 10:50 a.m., Detroit Police confirmed. The police are closing the two streets near Cobo and setting up barricades to protect property and onlookers.

The 2009 Ram is Chrysler's biggest premiere at the Detroit auto show, which opens to the media Sunday. The new Ram, Dodge's best-selling model, will go on sale later this year.

For someone who thought they had seen it all downtown, a stampede will be something new, said Gary Kohsman, manager of Cobo Joe's on Congress.

"I've seen everything imaginable happen on Congress -- except cowboys chasing bulls," he said. "I'm looking forward to this."

Cobo Joe's and other businesses along the cattle drive received letters from the city warning them of a two-hour street closure Sunday morning. Kohsman said patrons, many of whom are working construction at Cobo, have been buzzing about a running of the bulls in recent weeks.

Kohsman joked that he might try to sneak a stray steer into his kitchen, for a Sunday steak special.

Even for a police force that's handled a Super Bowl and a World Series in recent years, steers in the city is pretty unusual, said police spokesman James Tate.

"It's definitely not your average detail," he said. "The first question I asked was, 'Who's cleaning up?' "

To Tate's relief, he learned Chrysler has hired a private maintenance company to sweep up its cow-powered premiere.

The Auburn Hills automaker isn't talking about its plans for the Ram debut -- but it has dropped plenty of hints. Chrysler asked the media to gather outside Cobo for its press conference, and it sent Western-themed e-mail invitations to journalists, complete with the sound of a thundering herd.

Such an in-your-face vehicle launch works perfectly for the Dodge brand, said Erik Hauser, director of the San Francisco-based International Experiential Marketing Association.

"They really bring the truck back to being a truck," he said. "Working hard, working the fields, in there with the cattle."

Immersive marketing -- in this case when the crowd feels it's on the edge of the corral -- works well for automotive, because it's one of the few consumer products that sell based on how you feel inside it, Hauser said.

If pulled off well, the over-the-top stampede will be the type of event that sets YouTube and other video Web sites ablaze, said Dave Regan, an advertising instructor at Michigan State University.

"There are so many alternate marketing channels, you really have to try something new and innovative to make headlines," he said.

Cattle running through city streets would qualify as innovative -- but it's also risky, Regan said. Any live event can go wrong, but in an event dealing with multiple animals and likely no chance for rehearsals in the city, the risk factors heighten, Regan said.

"It could be a big media splash," he said. "Just be sure they have a pooper-scooper afterwards."