The Trunk Monkey Is Back!
Hey, hey, it's the Trunk Monkey
Sunday, August 28, 2005
By Howard LudwigStaff writer
If you thought the Budweiser Frogs were clever, wait until you see the Trunk Monkey.
Trunk Monkey is a marketing campaign being sold to auto dealers nationwide. It's the creation of R-West, an Oregon-based advertising and public relations firm.
R-West sells its Trunk Monkey marketing package for $11,000. The contract includes five television commercials, which can be customized for any dealership.
The commercials are based on the idea that a chimpanzee lives in the trunk of your car. Drivers push a button, which opens the trunk and frees the chimp to handle odd situations.
In one commercial, the ape rescues the driver by attacking a road-raging madman with a tire iron. The chimp subdues teens who had been throwing eggs at cars in another ad.
Trunk Monkey goes on to bribe a ticket-writing cop, retrieve a stolen vehicle and even deliver a baby in the three subsequent ads. All of the commercials can be seen online at www.trunkmonkeyad.com.
"The best deal, best offer thing does not sell cars, so we just wanted to be top of mind with customers," R-West president Sean Blixseth said.
R-West made its first Trunk Monkey ad two years ago. The campaign was picked up by a dealership in Oregon. The day after the first television commercial aired, the dealer's Web site was swamped.
Hit-counts surpassed that of popular sites such as Amazon.com and Disney, Blixseth said.
Trunk Monkey's popularity has increased steadily ever since, said Blixseth, who receives about six calls daily from interested auto dealers.
R-West is developing two more Trunk Monkey commercials it hopes to have ready for the Super Bowl. The idea is to sell the ads to dealerships to be used locally around the time of the big game.
Arnell Auto Group in Burns Harbor, Ind., purchased the ads in October. The company has exclusive rights to the commercials throughout the Southland and northwest Indiana.
"We wanted to change our image a little bit," said Jane Delligatti, marketing director for Arnell.
Arnell's Trunk Monkey campaign has included three different cable television ads, radio spots, billboards, print ads and direct mail. All have been wildly successful, according to Delligatti.
Monkey marketing has been focused within Indiana's Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties, but the dealership is considering promoting itself to customers farther west, she said.
Delligatti said the nearest dealerships also using the Trunk Monkey campaign in Indiana are in Lebanon and Elkhart. A dealership on Chicago's North Side may also be using the ads.
But, it is not all wine and roses for the Trunk Monkey camp. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, have come out against the ads, voicing concern about methods used to train great apes.
Plaza Auto Mall in New York was given PETA's Compassionate Advertiser Award after agreeing to pull the commercials.
Lousy tree-huggers ruin everything.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
By Howard LudwigStaff writer
If you thought the Budweiser Frogs were clever, wait until you see the Trunk Monkey.
Trunk Monkey is a marketing campaign being sold to auto dealers nationwide. It's the creation of R-West, an Oregon-based advertising and public relations firm.
R-West sells its Trunk Monkey marketing package for $11,000. The contract includes five television commercials, which can be customized for any dealership.
The commercials are based on the idea that a chimpanzee lives in the trunk of your car. Drivers push a button, which opens the trunk and frees the chimp to handle odd situations.
In one commercial, the ape rescues the driver by attacking a road-raging madman with a tire iron. The chimp subdues teens who had been throwing eggs at cars in another ad.
Trunk Monkey goes on to bribe a ticket-writing cop, retrieve a stolen vehicle and even deliver a baby in the three subsequent ads. All of the commercials can be seen online at www.trunkmonkeyad.com.
"The best deal, best offer thing does not sell cars, so we just wanted to be top of mind with customers," R-West president Sean Blixseth said.
R-West made its first Trunk Monkey ad two years ago. The campaign was picked up by a dealership in Oregon. The day after the first television commercial aired, the dealer's Web site was swamped.
Hit-counts surpassed that of popular sites such as Amazon.com and Disney, Blixseth said.
Trunk Monkey's popularity has increased steadily ever since, said Blixseth, who receives about six calls daily from interested auto dealers.
R-West is developing two more Trunk Monkey commercials it hopes to have ready for the Super Bowl. The idea is to sell the ads to dealerships to be used locally around the time of the big game.
Arnell Auto Group in Burns Harbor, Ind., purchased the ads in October. The company has exclusive rights to the commercials throughout the Southland and northwest Indiana.
"We wanted to change our image a little bit," said Jane Delligatti, marketing director for Arnell.
Arnell's Trunk Monkey campaign has included three different cable television ads, radio spots, billboards, print ads and direct mail. All have been wildly successful, according to Delligatti.
Monkey marketing has been focused within Indiana's Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties, but the dealership is considering promoting itself to customers farther west, she said.
Delligatti said the nearest dealerships also using the Trunk Monkey campaign in Indiana are in Lebanon and Elkhart. A dealership on Chicago's North Side may also be using the ads.
But, it is not all wine and roses for the Trunk Monkey camp. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, have come out against the ads, voicing concern about methods used to train great apes.
Plaza Auto Mall in New York was given PETA's Compassionate Advertiser Award after agreeing to pull the commercials.
Lousy tree-huggers ruin everything.
posted by Taco Mike | 11:09 AM
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