According to JD Power & Associates, there will be 71 SUV launches from 2018 to 2020. With the SUV segment continuing to dominate the automotive industry, it is critical to Cadillac’s ongoing success to grow in the segment.

Yet Cadillac’s brand relevance and product consideration have been on the decline. A majority of younger aged consumers lack a connection to the Cadillac brand, instead viewing the product as a car their ‘grandfather would drive’.

With these unprecedented challenges and a new vehicle launch campaign looming, Cadillac’s challenge was to create a real cultural connection with millennial consumers, and in the process, open that generations’ mind to the launch of the XT4, Cadillac’s first-ever compact luxury SUV.

It began with two ideas. The first was to wholeheartedly embrace the dynamic, powerful and tricky news environment. The second was to find the right partner and voice, someone who was not simply in journalism, but was revolutionizing the way it connected to younger audiences through pop culture. Someone just like Ari Melber. ‘Mavericks with Ari Melber’ was created as an entirely new content initiative, offering a compelling narrative with a one of a kind talent who was redefining the profession.

Working hand in hand with MSNBC leadership, we planned to build an expert mix of curated content within the ecosystem of the program in a way that wouldn’t harm Ari’s journalistic integrity. From there, we designed the best strategic opportunities possible to cross promote this show in a real, approachable and authentic way.

To be fair, the strategy was simple.

First, take advantage of the rapidly expanding appetite of Millennial audiences for news and journalism. Second, take advantage of Ari’s new approach to mixing news and pop culture. Third, connect to Cadillac’s heritage of innovation. Finally, we mixed these three strengths into a comprehensive program and approach to amplify and connect to the broadest audience possible.

’Mavericks with Ari Melber’ premiered with weekly episodes in December 2018. Seeking a unique approach to balance brand presence with journalistic integrity, each episode contains a custom intro, co-produced with Cadillac and featuring the XT4 at the heart of the narrative in a unique and organic way. The distribution approach was extremely comprehensive as the series was syndicated across all MSNBC and NBC News digital & OTT outlets. In order to launch successfully, we conducted intense cross-channel promotional efforts with live, in-show kickers delivered by Ari himself during his broadcast show “The Beat” – all doing at a scale that was a real first for the network.

Cadillac’s leading role in culture was revitalized:

•Episodes saw an 55% average full completion rate - 15% higher than MSNBC.com video averages, despite Mavericks videos being 3x longer (avg. length 17 min) than average MSNBC site videos, showing that the content from start to finish was highly desired.

•Overall, the content found massive resonance and viewership traction on OTT, receiving 69% of its views on those platforms where content is more viewed as entertainment, demonstrating real affinity for the show as content people want.

•A supplementary KARGO mobile promotional campaign saw VCR’s of 75.10% (Venti Unit) and 48.55% (Social Retargeting Unit) on a :10 promo asset, simply crushing the best KARGO VCR historical standards.

•Beginning with the series premiere on 12/3, each episode showed incredible viewership sustainment and consumption as each garnered an average of 66% of their total views (as of 1/18/19) AFTER that episodes first week of airing.