Dodge Caliber Targets Young Buyers, Sets Sights on Web

Targeting a tough-to-reach, hip demographic - college-educated, single, 25- to 35-year-olds with a $45,000 median income - for its Caliber compact car, Dodge is taking a shot at connecting with them via the web. Dodge will allocate 20 percent of its Caliber ad budget to "nontraditional" ads, including online and gaming - a significant increase from the 4-5 percent or so for campaigns a few years ago, and from a generous 10 percent for some models nowadays.

Online ads will focus on comedy, music, animation and sports sites. The campaign will run banners on sites like The Onion, Daily Candy, and The Knot; it will run 30-second pre-roll video ads on Time Warner's newly launched "Office Pirates" site. Dodge will also create a branded character on MySpace in May and offer avatars on Yahoo and MSN IM clients.
Dodge has built four online games with the Caliber and integrated it into four console games for Playstation and Xbox, including EA Sports' "Fight Night 3," Ubisoft's "And1," and two Tom Clancy games from Red Storm Entertainment.