Speaker 1: You're listening to Math and Magic, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. A brand is always more than a display
Speaker 1: off product, and this is something most of your makers
Speaker 1: have forgotten. You know, a branch should be a statement,
Speaker 1: It should be a persona. It should come with a purpose,
Speaker 1: and it should be a promise. Then when you have
Speaker 1: all that, then and only then, the single products become
Speaker 1: a family. In the family becomes a brand. I'm Bob Pittman,
Speaker 1: and welcome to Math and Magic. Stories from the Frontiers
Speaker 1: of Marketing. We explore the analytical and the creative. And
Speaker 1: today we have a Frenchman who works for an Italian
Speaker 1: company and lives in Detroit. That in itself is probably
Speaker 1: a podcast. Olivier Francois is the CMO of Fiat Chrysler
Speaker 1: and the originator of one of the best repositioning marketing
Speaker 1: lines I've ever heard, imported from Detroit. He's the creative
Speaker 1: force behind those iconic ads that featured legends from eminem
Speaker 1: to Clint Eastwood to Bob Dylan, and they have even
Speaker 1: remarketed Detroit making a cool and vibrant again. Olivia speaks
Speaker 1: at least three languages. He's a published poet, he's had
Speaker 1: his own music company, still uses that skill as a
Speaker 1: competitive advantage in business. He even had an export business
Speaker 1: that included jams and skis. He has a life that
Speaker 1: spans continents and ideas that span genres. He has a
Speaker 1: great story about how he made the jump to the
Speaker 1: card business, which we'll get to. I met Olivier in
Speaker 1: Turin because I could never get in to see him
Speaker 1: in Detroit, so I decided to stop and see him there.
Speaker 1: He has offices everywhere, always on the go, so we
Speaker 1: have a lot to discuss today. Welcome Olivier, Thank you
Speaker 1: for having me. Well, we're delighted to have you. And
Speaker 1: before we get into all the meaty stuff, we have
Speaker 1: a little feature we start with, which is called you
Speaker 1: in sixty seconds. This is gonna be rapid fire questions.
Speaker 1: Don't think about it, just give us your answer. Vanilla
Speaker 1: or chocolate, which do you prefer? There is no need
Speaker 1: to choose, says a mix in Italy. It's called Strachatella
Speaker 1: delicious France or Italy Italy because they invented stra New
Speaker 1: York City or l A City, Detroit, Detroit or Turan.
Speaker 1: I want to say, actually Miami, Okay, Motown or Hip
Speaker 1: hop definitely Motown, but Hey is a son of Motown,
Speaker 1: so there's two things have come together nicely. No power
Speaker 1: boats or sailboats. Sailboats are solar power boats. Maybe zoo
Speaker 1: Lander or Ron Burgundy, Round Burgundy da Vinci or Gala
Speaker 1: Leo da Vinci. You know why because he was Italian
Speaker 1: but spent most of his life in France, So double culture.
Speaker 1: I can definitely relate to this. Imported from Detroit or
Speaker 1: halftime in America. Important to America like me, it's about
Speaker 1: to get harder. What secret tality you have, boy maker?
Speaker 1: Have four boys? Favorite European city Venice, It's on the water.
Speaker 1: I love it. Favorite American city Miami, it's on the water.
Speaker 1: I love it. Favorite poet. So I'm hesitating between Bodle,
Speaker 1: Shakespeare and Eminem, but we'll say Lare because I'm French.
Speaker 1: Favorite artist. Oh okay, that's a chance to say Eminem. Then,
Speaker 1: most prestigious award you've ever received, the high school diploma.
Speaker 1: That was a pure miracle at the time. Historical idol,
Speaker 1: I hate idols. No idols. If you could have one superpower,
Speaker 1: what would it be? Get rid of the French accents
Speaker 1: who would play you in a movie. I have no clue.
Speaker 1: Proudest achievement marrying my wife Arianna and keep making her happy.
Speaker 1: What's one food you'd never eat? I eat everything, spoken
Speaker 1: like a true Italian Frenchman, a detroitter. Let's jump for
Speaker 1: a few minutes to your big inspirational moments here at
Speaker 1: I Heart. We have a wildly popular podcast with Ron Burgundy,
Speaker 1: and you had a wildly successful ad campaign with Ron
Speaker 1: Burgundy as well. Where did that come from? This comes
Speaker 1: from the idea that I say, what makes a big
Speaker 1: difference in marketing is authenticity. So what we always try
Speaker 1: to do is align our brand, it's ethos, personality with
Speaker 1: someone who embodies exactly a say, set of values. And
Speaker 1: that was very much eminem and cross in that moment. Obviously,
Speaker 1: to just use an example, Ron Burgundy was incredibly what
Speaker 1: I wanted to do with Dodge at the time. Not
Speaker 1: will fail. Literally the character we saw it was very irreverent.
Speaker 1: It embodied exactly the personality of Dodge as I saw
Speaker 1: it at the time. How did you put that together?
Speaker 1: So you have this idea, did you say, wow, Ryan
Speaker 1: Burgundy is it? Or did someone tell you about Ryan Burgundy? No,
Speaker 1: someone told you My body, Tim Karniskis. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: an element of American cultures that obviously do not have.
Speaker 1: So this is a handicap. At the same time, it's
Speaker 1: a blessing because obviously I'm open to everything, and I
Speaker 1: have developed some antennas, you know, that allow me to understand,
Speaker 1: to smell, to feel what's good, what's maybe not that good,
Speaker 1: And in this case, I thought that that could be
Speaker 1: something very innovative. You mentioned Zoolander. We also did a
Speaker 1: Fiat campaign with Ben Steeler. It was not Ben Steeler
Speaker 1: obviously embodying Fiat, it was their Exulander. This was an
Speaker 1: amazing commercial. Actually it ran in the whole world. And
Speaker 1: the beauty here is it's all about a partnership. So
Speaker 1: these guys have a movie they want to promote, you know,
Speaker 1: think of Fast and Furious and Vin Diesel, same story.
Speaker 1: You know, they want to promote the movie. Generally, they
Speaker 1: are producers of their own movie. So obviously there's some
Speaker 1: interest in having a media partner. So I hire the character,
Speaker 1: not the actor. The character. We developed a commercial. Hey,
Speaker 1: in some cases, I think that the campaign was better
Speaker 1: than the movie. I won't bring any name, but I
Speaker 1: think that in some of these cases, the campaign was
Speaker 1: probably almost overpromising. So you bring run Burgundy, end, this
Speaker 1: is going to be your campaign. You tell people internally
Speaker 1: in the company, I have this great idea, run Burgundy.
Speaker 1: The people go brilliant or they go while that's risky. No,
Speaker 1: I didn't tell anyone in the company. We just do it.
Speaker 1: So that's the empowerment we have. F c A is
Speaker 1: all about leadership, and lead ship is about taking your
Speaker 1: responsibilities and obviously about accountability. If it fails, it is
Speaker 1: your own failure. So the day I understood that it
Speaker 1: was probably not a great idea to share ideas in advance,
Speaker 1: was actually this important from Detroit idea Where I shared it.
Speaker 1: It was almost my very first campaign, and I was
Speaker 1: not totally sure, and clearly the advice were not positive.
Speaker 1: You know, don't bring up Detroit. Detroit is not liked.
Speaker 1: People don't connect with Detroit. That your feminism eminem is
Speaker 1: probably a little bit controversial, and blah blah. The only
Speaker 1: thing these advisors didn't think of telling me is that
Speaker 1: you could not do a two minute Super Bowl commercial.
Speaker 1: So the first part of the advice I luckily ignored.
Speaker 1: It was probably not a bad advice it just turned
Speaker 1: out not being what people were afraid of, you know,
Speaker 1: math beach magic, Yes, exactly, part to predict the magic
Speaker 1: talk about imported from Detroit, which I'm a marketer at
Speaker 1: hard and it's one of the greatest lines I've ever heard.
Speaker 1: Where did that line come from? So that line came
Speaker 1: totally incidentally from a speech I came from Fiat and
Speaker 1: I was called by our late boss, Surgeon Match to
Speaker 1: lead Chrysler, and I was leading another European car maker there.
Speaker 1: So we said, hey, come over, I need you for Crysser.
Speaker 1: And the first thing we did we had to bring
Speaker 1: new models. So um, the shortest time to market we
Speaker 1: could think of was to take the old Sea Bring
Speaker 1: that was not the greatest car. We had to be
Speaker 1: totally fair fix it makes some things that would really
Speaker 1: match the level of qualities we wanted for Crossers. So
Speaker 1: we fixed the quality, we fixed the design. Yet it
Speaker 1: was not a brand new car. It was a facelift,
Speaker 1: so we named it Crossed two hundreds, which was almost
Speaker 1: a bit overstating the newness of the car. And then
Speaker 1: the slow that we had to launch a car was
Speaker 1: l A. The l A Auto Show Detroit was a
Speaker 1: bit too far ahead. LA seemed perfect. Obviously I was
Speaker 1: so terribly ignorant of all things America. I am still ignorant,
Speaker 1: but then it was really pathetic. So one thing I
Speaker 1: didn't know is that the l A Auto Show is
Speaker 1: literally the Imports Detroit. I mean, it is really where
Speaker 1: you celebrate Japanese cars, German cars, maybe Italian cars by
Speaker 1: the way, but for sure not a Crassler. So too late,
Speaker 1: I'm on stage presenting my new baby. And that was
Speaker 1: obviously one of the most important moments in my life,
Speaker 1: because this was a question of life or death for
Speaker 1: the whole company and not just for me. And when
Speaker 1: I realized that l A is home of the imports,
Speaker 1: the respect quality design and more importantly fuel efficiency. And
Speaker 1: at the time, back in two thousand and ten eleven,
Speaker 1: I mean, the design, we were making progress. Quality, as
Speaker 1: I just said, we were making big strides. Fuel efficiency
Speaker 1: not so much. But the Cross the two hundred had
Speaker 1: something to say, so I just instinctively pitched it. I
Speaker 1: made this up on stage. I say, hey, I know
Speaker 1: that you guys like imports and we are in l A.
Speaker 1: So look at this car like imported from Detroit. It
Speaker 1: was just my ending and actually a couple of people
Speaker 1: came and said that's would be a good line for
Speaker 1: a not and then I thought of it, you know,
Speaker 1: and I said, yeah, that's a good life for a not.
Speaker 1: Then clearly the soundtrack came. I have four kids, two
Speaker 1: of which at the time were very much into hip
Speaker 1: hop and introduced me to Eminem, And obviously when we
Speaker 1: started thinking of Detroit, obviously that tune came to mind.
Speaker 1: When you have one chance, one opportunity that totally connects
Speaker 1: together Crosser Detroit and all of America. So I was
Speaker 1: obsessed with securing that song, which ended up being an endeavor,
Speaker 1: says the least. Once I had the song, Eminem was
Speaker 1: so intwigued. You know, it was never scripted to be
Speaker 1: in the commercial. It was just kind of probably in
Speaker 1: twigued at the same time, may be a bit scared
Speaker 1: by rightfully, so you know, what are these advertisers going
Speaker 1: to do with my song? I promised him that would
Speaker 1: be probably more largely about Detroit than just about a
Speaker 1: car for sure, or even the brand. But he came
Speaker 1: on set and then it just magic happened. So from
Speaker 1: six hundred cars promounts to six thousand after the commercial
Speaker 1: that math aspect and and the magic is what happened
Speaker 1: in the whole country because obviously the commercial resonated with
Speaker 1: more than just Detroit, with more than just car guys.
Speaker 1: It resonated as a message of pride for all of America.
Speaker 1: What was detroit reaction to at the whole community? I
Speaker 1: know that a town of cars, it's the motor city.
Speaker 1: Had they feel about it? They felt incredible. I mean
Speaker 1: it was really our love declaration to our hometown. But really, again,
Speaker 1: as I said before, it went above and beyond Detroit,
Speaker 1: because all of America that didn't like very much Detroit
Speaker 1: in that moment, I mean, they didn't like the mosest city.
Speaker 1: People were very suspicious when it came to Detroit and
Speaker 1: when it came to all these bankruptcies. But there was
Speaker 1: a spirit, there was a mindset, in an attitude in
Speaker 1: that commercial, and that's very largely due to Eminem and
Speaker 1: to his music. The images were pretty good there, and
Speaker 1: the images were very good to look very cool. It
Speaker 1: made Detroit look very cool. And it's a mix of
Speaker 1: images that some we captured that day, some we had captured.
Speaker 1: I mean that was something we totally made up. We
Speaker 1: were not even sure that we would even air a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl commercial. We were a bailout company, and my
Speaker 1: boss and our management and to the last moment, we're
Speaker 1: assessing whether airing a big commercial during a Super Bowl
Speaker 1: was a good thing or a bad thing. Would there
Speaker 1: be a backlash? We had secured I sink in ninety seconds,
Speaker 1: but that thing was just magical and beautiful as a
Speaker 1: two minutes. So we also had to buy the extra
Speaker 1: so a second convince the NFL to innovate because there
Speaker 1: were no such things as a two minute Super Bowl
Speaker 1: commercial is so um the magic almost of ignorance, because
Speaker 1: we had really no clue that Eminem would not license
Speaker 1: a song, that Eminem would not appear in a commercial,
Speaker 1: and that two minutes of advertising could not fit a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl apart. You know, so you talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about being the outsiders you hit town, Sergio, the
Speaker 1: whole gang from Italy. Certainly you were outsiders. Did this
Speaker 1: commercial change who you were in Detroit to that Detroit
Speaker 1: community or you still every bit as much an outsider
Speaker 1: after this? When I first to town, you know, I
Speaker 1: was in a hotel, totally stuck, snow, outside, rain, terrible weather.
Speaker 1: I could not even totally locate Michigan on the map,
Speaker 1: the turn on the TV, and I remember still today
Speaker 1: the commercials. I was so shocked. You know, this one
Speaker 1: day only sales events. We don't have such things in Italy.
Speaker 1: I mean one day only sales event, zero down deals.
Speaker 1: I remember sharing with my friends everywhere all these prices
Speaker 1: ending up in ninety nine. It seemed like America would
Speaker 1: buy anything that ended in ninety nine. So I was
Speaker 1: totally clueless. So I first blamed it on the culture barrier,
Speaker 1: obviously blamed it on the jet lag, but really, as
Speaker 1: a marketer, I just realized that these guys were totally lost.
Speaker 1: They were speaking to themselves. They didn't connect to me
Speaker 1: because they didn't connect to anyone else. You know, when
Speaker 1: you're in a panic mode, you lose your mind. That
Speaker 1: is a little bit to what the whole oli industry
Speaker 1: did back in O nine and two thousand and ten.
Speaker 1: So then the next thing I did, I started visiting
Speaker 1: houses and apartments. All I knew about America was New York.
Speaker 1: I hoped that there would be some kind of Manhattan
Speaker 1: in Detroit. I didn't know, So I asked my driver,
Speaker 1: you know, to just take me through Detroit and let's
Speaker 1: decide where I'm going to live. He was laughing, because
Speaker 1: obviously there was nowhere to live. Today, the city center
Speaker 1: is all vibrant, is amazing. Everyone wants to move downtown Detroit,
Speaker 1: even from New York, even from New York. And that's
Speaker 1: maybe my biggest pride. No, no, having been part of
Speaker 1: that movement. So but now touring in a car with
Speaker 1: this guy who had a gun next to him, because
Speaker 1: that's how dangerous the city was at the same time.
Speaker 1: That's just two thousand and nine nine, And it became
Speaker 1: very obvious that this city had a story to tell.
Speaker 1: There was a spirit, there was his mindset. There was
Speaker 1: something so much bigger than this commercial, this cup holders
Speaker 1: and and all this. So this is what I decided
Speaker 1: to deliver. In marketing, it's not about shooting for the
Speaker 1: perfect commercial. It's always about shooting for the perfect moment.
Speaker 1: And that commercial just came at the perfect moment. So
Speaker 1: I want to go way back. I want to go
Speaker 1: back to your childhood. Where did you grow up? Parents, siblings?
Speaker 1: I have one brother, my brother liked the rest of
Speaker 1: my family before me are very serious people. I had philosophers,
Speaker 1: I had teachers, I had artists, in my family and
Speaker 1: my brother is a super brilliant low professor at the
Speaker 1: University in Paris. And the one thing we never had,
Speaker 1: and it was probably one of the pride of the family.
Speaker 1: We never had people like me. Salespeople, the worst of
Speaker 1: the worst marketers and car marketers is probably the worst
Speaker 1: thing you can What do they make of your life.
Speaker 1: I'm one of the kind of the super intellectual family.
Speaker 1: I'm the one who didn't make it, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: the one who failed, and I'm a car salesman. And
Speaker 1: there's no way they will change your mind, which is
Speaker 1: totally fine with me. I totally get it. They don't
Speaker 1: think I'm crazy. I'm just probably the one who didn't
Speaker 1: follow the his DNA. I probably have something else in
Speaker 1: the DNA processive gene, a recessive gene. I started well
Speaker 1: in life. I used to write poetry. Did you write
Speaker 1: poetry as a kid or this is after school? I
Speaker 1: did write poetry as a kid, and it sounds like
Speaker 1: that was sort of the household DNA. This was the
Speaker 1: household DNA. I was super intellectual. What did you learn
Speaker 1: from childhood that you apply to marketing? As you introduced
Speaker 1: me very generously, when a frenchman working for an Italian
Speaker 1: car company in America. You never know totally what language
Speaker 1: this is going to be. And what's interesting about language
Speaker 1: is that it drives a certain type of culture. Italian
Speaker 1: as an example, Italian is the language of music. There's
Speaker 1: a musicality in Italian and the words of music the
Speaker 1: language of music, allegro conbri or forte legato, crescendo. What
Speaker 1: is French? Friend? Is all about Romans. I really think
Speaker 1: that French is the language of love. You know, if
Speaker 1: you think of rendezvous, escapade, managerois I'm kidding, But all
Speaker 1: these French words that you use here in America, what
Speaker 1: is the addition of English besides the French kiss? If
Speaker 1: you think, what are the words that are not translatable
Speaker 1: in any other language? Marketing? I swear I tried to
Speaker 1: Google translate marketing and there's another word, by the way, leadership.
Speaker 1: I tried to translate leadership. What is the concept then
Speaker 1: in French for marketing or leadership? There is not I
Speaker 1: mean it translates marketing even in French. It doesn't translate.
Speaker 1: It is only in English. And I like this idea
Speaker 1: of my triple DNA helix or at least my kids
Speaker 1: will have the triple. So on one hand, days this
Speaker 1: taste for Romans and philanthropy as well, you know, super
Speaker 1: important for us French people. This openness to the world.
Speaker 1: This is what I get from my childhood. And then
Speaker 1: all these you know, I'm married an Italian singer, a
Speaker 1: live in Italy, and this all this edition of the language,
Speaker 1: of the culture, of arts, of music, of beauty, of
Speaker 1: da Vita. And then now there is the American addition.
Speaker 1: That's leadership, that's marketing, that's business, and I love this mix.
Speaker 1: Just hold on a second, because we've got so much
Speaker 1: more to talk about. We'll be back after a quick break.
Speaker 1: Welcome back the math and magic. So after school you
Speaker 1: actually went into it. Here you are the greatest magician
Speaker 1: and you were a mathematician. Is that right? I wasn't data.
Speaker 1: I t using like the least likely person to be
Speaker 1: in data. You're turny, right. So what happened is that
Speaker 1: needed a job badly, and I was pretty pretty broke,
Speaker 1: and I ended up overselling myself to the first entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: Actually I met him at the head dresser and I
Speaker 1: tried to bullshit a lot about what I could do
Speaker 1: in I T. Truth is I did a very short
Speaker 1: and little internship at IBM. Not a bad one, you know,
Speaker 1: but the kind of internship when when you make copies
Speaker 1: and serve coffees. That's all I had done in the
Speaker 1: I T business. I convinced him to hire me, and
Speaker 1: guess what, it went well. Obviously I ended up selling
Speaker 1: I T more than programming on doing anything else. But hey,
Speaker 1: I was lucky. It went well and I had very
Speaker 1: good years there. You then went in the music business
Speaker 1: at your own record label. Tell us about that. So
Speaker 1: what I love about life is when it really comes
Speaker 1: full circle and this is really what it does. Because yeah,
Speaker 1: biggest ambition was to either write poetry or produce music.
Speaker 1: I mean, I can read music. I went to the conservatory,
Speaker 1: but I'm not a great musician. To be honest, I
Speaker 1: have a good year. I think. I started with the
Speaker 1: ambition of being a music producer. So I started a
Speaker 1: little label in Paris. I didn't do amazing, didn't do
Speaker 1: horrible either. You know, I could make a living. But
Speaker 1: in the meantime I married my first wife, who gave
Speaker 1: me three wonderful children. And rightfully, so, you know, women
Speaker 1: are smarter than we are and Her plan for a
Speaker 1: family was obviously not to marry a music guy or
Speaker 1: to provide her kids with a music producer. She wanted
Speaker 1: a real guy, was a real job. So reluctantly, but okay,
Speaker 1: you know, out of love, I said, okay, I'm going
Speaker 1: to to do something else. So I applied very randomly,
Speaker 1: to be totally honest, there was this car company around
Speaker 1: the corner in Paris, prey prestigious, old Citroen and still around.
Speaker 1: And so I got hired and I left my record business.
Speaker 1: Did some very data driven by the way job. I
Speaker 1: started in pricing, So my job was to recommend. I
Speaker 1: didn't decide anything, but there was recommending what the ideal
Speaker 1: pricing should be for cast, looking at the margins, looking
Speaker 1: at the profitability, looking at the competitiveness. So a lot
Speaker 1: of data, a lot of Lotus one to three, and
Speaker 1: I loved it. By the way, I was absolutely a
Speaker 1: master in Lotus one to three. And hey, I strived
Speaker 1: in this new environment. Forgot told you about music arts.
Speaker 1: We grew our children and Citron grew me very nicely.
Speaker 1: You how did you progress on the company, because you
Speaker 1: went on to run various countries for yes, So in
Speaker 1: the first step. I had absolutely no ambition to be
Speaker 1: totally and I still do not have a lot of
Speaker 1: ambition besides, you know, making a living and have some
Speaker 1: quality time with my loved ones. That's my biggest ambition
Speaker 1: in life. But they were good enough to me, you know,
Speaker 1: to promote me every almost every year with two years.
Speaker 1: And at some point, after ten years of being in
Speaker 1: this big headquarters corridors, I missed my entrepreneurship, you know,
Speaker 1: I missed the thrill that I experienced for a few
Speaker 1: years as a music producer. I asked if there was
Speaker 1: some possibility of just you know, I'm managing even a
Speaker 1: little company within the company, and that little company was
Speaker 1: sitter in Denmark. Then I went from Denmark to Italy
Speaker 1: and still for the same company. And in Italy I
Speaker 1: started learning marketing because in Italy it's all about the image.
Speaker 1: It's not about the horsepower or the spects of the
Speaker 1: careering to buy. How are you going to look like
Speaker 1: if you are seen driving one? In Italy is very
Speaker 1: much about the image you're going to project. So obviously
Speaker 1: it's terribly about marketing. And the company was not in
Speaker 1: good shape in terms of perceived image. So we started
Speaker 1: this work. So first, marketing costs a lot of money,
Speaker 1: so our first had to find some resources. So started
Speaker 1: with structuring our network, cut into a lot of expenses
Speaker 1: and creating critical mass that could allow us to spend
Speaker 1: on marketing. Media is one saying the message is super important.
Speaker 1: So when it comes to the message, I started patterning
Speaker 1: with influencers. We had Gaban as an example, patterning with us.
Speaker 1: I had the Bob Pittman of Italy and literally the
Speaker 1: biggest radio guy becoming an influencer for me, and it
Speaker 1: was featured in some of our campaigns. So the whole
Speaker 1: thing big use of radio. To the credit of radio,
Speaker 1: there's so much you can do that you can't do
Speaker 1: with TV or print. We did this big venture with
Speaker 1: the radio and brought back that company, you know, to
Speaker 1: double the market share there too. We actually almost tripled
Speaker 1: the market share. That was pretty incredible. Now, it was
Speaker 1: extremely facilitated by something else that's super important, which is
Speaker 1: the domestic leader, and that was Fiat. I think of
Speaker 1: how ironic things are, you know, And the domestic leader
Speaker 1: was weak at the time, I mean, were was in
Speaker 1: a very very bad shape with Surgio there, and Sergio
Speaker 1: was not there and I was obviously managing, you know,
Speaker 1: to conquest customers. Fiat was was kind of feeding my business.
Speaker 1: And then one day this incredible, hyper, super charismatic guy
Speaker 1: out of nowhere, no one knew him, and called me
Speaker 1: to Fiat was losing one million a day. So the
Speaker 1: first moment that was not really convinced that that was
Speaker 1: the right thing to do for at least to my family.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously crazy attracted by the challenge, inquibly attracted
Speaker 1: by the character. I mean, Sergio, what a character, what
Speaker 1: a curism, But at the same time, I was not
Speaker 1: sure it was the right thing to do in terms
Speaker 1: of personal life. So I turned him down a couple
Speaker 1: of times, and then he called me a third time,
Speaker 1: but that time followed bright treason that was so unexpected.
Speaker 1: I had published a poetry book at some point, and
Speaker 1: he bought that book and called again. And he wanted
Speaker 1: me because of the book, not just because I was
Speaker 1: a good cast salesman, and I love that thing. I
Speaker 1: saw that was totally irresistible, and I had to work
Speaker 1: for a person like this, what yours this? And that
Speaker 1: was in two thousand and five, so you gotta via,
Speaker 1: what's your first car? There? Fiat was a group with
Speaker 1: It was not the house of brands that we have today,
Speaker 1: but it had this little super Italian brand called Lancha.
Speaker 1: And what I asked Sergio, I said, look, okay, I
Speaker 1: think I'm going to join the Fiat group, but I
Speaker 1: want to grow my knowledge of the car business. I
Speaker 1: want to had one of your car companies. So give
Speaker 1: me the smallest one. But I want to get into
Speaker 1: that experience of building cars, designing cars, producing cars, not
Speaker 1: just selling on marketing. So he gave me this very
Speaker 1: super small Italian boutique brand called Lancha that's really very
Speaker 1: dutcha vita, very refined, beautifully crafted, um a little carts.
Speaker 1: There is nothing more italient than Luncha. So I I
Speaker 1: fell in love with a brand and um. But very
Speaker 1: quickly I realized that our cash position, we're not financially
Speaker 1: in position to invest a lot of money, so marketing again.
Speaker 1: I was given enough money to life cycle animation, refresh
Speaker 1: the car, put the right engine, change interior, but never
Speaker 1: to launched the next big thing. Really what changed my
Speaker 1: life was a couple of campaigns that I did to
Speaker 1: promote my brand. So one campaign, since I didn't have
Speaker 1: much money, also for marketing and needed to be very noisy,
Speaker 1: to be very loud. So one campaign was taking advantage
Speaker 1: of the Olympic Games in Beijing, and so I was
Speaker 1: very much leaning towards Tibet and free Tibet and stumbled
Speaker 1: on an article about Rishard Gear, who is extremely respected
Speaker 1: and loved also in Europe, and obviously, I mean, he's
Speaker 1: huge there, and so I convinced him to do a
Speaker 1: kind of a pro free Tibet commercial and that thing
Speaker 1: went nuts, and obviously we're running it taking advantage of
Speaker 1: the Olympics, so that was a little bit of a provocation.
Speaker 1: I stopped airing the commercial at some point, but that
Speaker 1: got me to something else. So the former Russian president
Speaker 1: Gbaov called me one day. I received that call in
Speaker 1: my office, absolutely incredible with a translator. So he heard
Speaker 1: of this commercial, so that was pretty bold, and offered
Speaker 1: us to supply the Nobel Laureates. So we was heading
Speaker 1: the summit of the Peace Nobel Areate, so it just
Speaker 1: offered us to supply them with cars for their summits.
Speaker 1: So okay, finally love that opportunity. But that was an
Speaker 1: a defining moment because the day before the summit, I
Speaker 1: decided to make the travel to Paris, and the summit
Speaker 1: was in Paris with a very light group literally two
Speaker 1: guys and a camera, and we created a video and
Speaker 1: advertisement leading for freedom for our San Succi, the current
Speaker 1: Burmese leader but who had been the house arrest for many,
Speaker 1: many years. So we created that piece with obviously complicity
Speaker 1: of all the novel ority are all featured in a
Speaker 1: car garbage of Dalai Lama. I think Mandela was part
Speaker 1: of it. I mean that was pretty crazy, and so
Speaker 1: I started running that commercial that was obviously featuring a car,
Speaker 1: but obviously it was about something more. My boss tumbled
Speaker 1: on it. When he called me, I immediately knew that
Speaker 1: it would be either very good or very bad. But
Speaker 1: it turned out very good, you know. He he literally
Speaker 1: recognized that there was something about marketing and that we
Speaker 1: were doing that he liked. So he created that position
Speaker 1: of CMO that didn't exist at the time for all
Speaker 1: of the for all of fiats. So that's Fiat Lancia
Speaker 1: at Fromeo as Verdi our group. That's fine, So we jump.
Speaker 1: You guys go to and you do incredible stuff and
Speaker 1: your legendary for that period it you guys get Chrysler.
Speaker 1: This is in the depths of the recession of two
Speaker 1: thousand two nine. What was your original plan for Chrysler.
Speaker 1: I mean, you guys couldn't have studied it a whole
Speaker 1: lot other than to know it's one of the big
Speaker 1: three in Detroit. Sergio became very quickly, extremely aware that
Speaker 1: the biggest strength for car maker are his brands. I
Speaker 1: think that our new CEO, Mike Manley is even more convinced.
Speaker 1: He was running. He's still running. By the way, the
Speaker 1: Jeep brand with incredible success and we are all fantastic
Speaker 1: brand It is actually mix. He speaks of a house
Speaker 1: of brands, and it is so true. The real worth
Speaker 1: of the crosso group where it's brands. There are no cars,
Speaker 1: not many at least, but hey, Dodge Jeep Crosser. We
Speaker 1: spinned off the ram trucks out of Dodge in order
Speaker 1: to give Dodge its own personality and create attracts centric brand.
Speaker 1: So that the recipe for that, or the principles you know, um,
Speaker 1: they're very simple. Everything you do you need to be
Speaker 1: brand centric. It sounds obvious, but it is absolutely not.
Speaker 1: I mean, you need to recognize the brand in a
Speaker 1: commercial without even having to see a car and that's
Speaker 1: what we do still today. Then the second thing, be
Speaker 1: bald and always unexpected, always unpredictable. I mean, if you
Speaker 1: run together with the others at the same pace, And
Speaker 1: that was you know Alice in Wonderland, the Red Queen.
Speaker 1: That's a metaphor from Red Queen, where you know Alice
Speaker 1: is running together with everyone and it's like she is static,
Speaker 1: she doesn't move. But if you run quicker than you
Speaker 1: are going to be exhausted. So you just need to
Speaker 1: be different, to do things differently. Uh. And we spoke
Speaker 1: of that with Eminem was everything we did and the
Speaker 1: third saying, and that's really something super important when it
Speaker 1: comes to marketing. Make a connection. It sounds obvious, but
Speaker 1: my first encounter with marketing in America the prices in
Speaker 1: the one day sales event, this kind of pathetic marketing
Speaker 1: looking for short term sales. They didn't connect with anyone.
Speaker 1: They were not relatable. They were speaking to themselves, relatable
Speaker 1: as something else. I mean, if I can relate to
Speaker 1: your advertising message, that's probably half the battle and no nonsense.
Speaker 1: You know, then you make a connection and last be relevant.
Speaker 1: I mean we spoke of how the Eminem commercial was relevant, uh,
Speaker 1: and how the moment is important to what you do.
Speaker 1: Once again, my conviction is you need to build your
Speaker 1: brands first before even building your products, because there is
Speaker 1: more value in selling a product through a brand then
Speaker 1: trying to sell a brand through its newest product. A
Speaker 1: brand is always more than a display of product, and
Speaker 1: this is something most of the car makers have forgotten.
Speaker 1: You know, a branch should be a statement, it should
Speaker 1: be a persona. It should come with a purpose, and
Speaker 1: it should be a promise. Then when you have all that,
Speaker 1: then and only then, the single products become a family,
Speaker 1: and the family becomes a brand. You've got an incredible
Speaker 1: philosophy about advertising, You've got a history, you've got enormous experience,
Speaker 1: and you've got an amazing team in Detroit, Susan Bruce
Speaker 1: and all the others. Yep, you've got the idea. What's
Speaker 1: the process? I got this aha moment and we're gonna
Speaker 1: get this thing on the air. Oh totally. If you
Speaker 1: take positioning as an example, you know we spoke of
Speaker 1: important from Detroit. It's not just a line. It's not
Speaker 1: just a tagline or punchline or it is the positioning
Speaker 1: of Chryser because It defines specifically our market space. You know,
Speaker 1: the quality and refinement of any important but that celebrates
Speaker 1: at the same time the spirit of a city that's
Speaker 1: important from Detroit. Then if I go the Brotherhood of Vessel,
Speaker 1: what brand is that? You know, it's it's Dodge. It's obvious,
Speaker 1: you know, Bill to Serve. It's not Dodge, that's Ramp.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly why we separated the two brands. And
Speaker 1: if I go Freedom and Adventure, Bob Jeep perfect you know,
Speaker 1: mechanics of emotion, that's alpha. So that's what I call positioning.
Speaker 1: It defines your turf. If you take Jeep, I mean
Speaker 1: it's a quick essential because I know you love Jeep.
Speaker 1: You know, I have Jeep wagon ears with the wood
Speaker 1: grain on the doors and I'm still waiting for that
Speaker 1: to come back. And my tail hatch that comes down
Speaker 1: the back tail. Okay, the good news is it will
Speaker 1: come back. We already said, and you won't have to
Speaker 1: to wait for long. This morning about Jeep, by the way,
Speaker 1: thinking of the podcast, you know, so um take all
Speaker 1: the credit. I saw a Jeep and I realized that
Speaker 1: really my recipe for Jeep is what I called the
Speaker 1: triple A adventure, authenticity Americana. Talk about radio a little bit.
Speaker 1: You've been a great user of the influencers, the on
Speaker 1: air personalities. I remember after the Super Bowl you had
Speaker 1: that fantastic long video of the Vikings coming to Minneapolis
Speaker 1: and turning around, and our folks talked about it Monday morning.
Speaker 1: To drive the views on YouTube, you suddenly tied together
Speaker 1: a TV AD, radio and YouTube all on one campaign
Speaker 1: that works seamlessly together. How do you think about those
Speaker 1: pieces like that? So, yeah, there are many elements in
Speaker 1: your question. So first I would like to touch the
Speaker 1: people's story, you know, the endorsers, characters, and also music.
Speaker 1: Music is super important unless you have a question, let us.
Speaker 1: So now, people is super important. What I call people
Speaker 1: is who you will see in the driver's seats. So
Speaker 1: I spoke of my Italian experience. It's all about how
Speaker 1: am I going to look like while driving a car.
Speaker 1: So the selection of who you are going to put
Speaker 1: behind the wheel is super super important because ultimately we
Speaker 1: want you to be in the driver's seat, so you
Speaker 1: need someone relatable but at the same time an aspirational
Speaker 1: version of you. You know, the Ryan Gosling version of
Speaker 1: Bob Pittman. You know, and so this is a little
Speaker 1: bit how we select our endorsers and we had them
Speaker 1: all honestly, Ron Burgundy, we had did the dre Oprah,
Speaker 1: Lenny Kravitz, Charlie Sheen. That was one of super most
Speaker 1: funny operations we ran with Fiat Clinti Suit obviously such
Speaker 1: a blessing, amazing or Bob Dylan. I mean, I'm blessed
Speaker 1: to have worked with people like this. Now, you know
Speaker 1: what's super interesting really deep down as a marketing technique,
Speaker 1: I hate endorsement. It's a short cut to buy recognition.
Speaker 1: You borrow equity rather than to build it. So don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong. My approach on endorsement is not the
Speaker 1: tradish a way. You know, in Europe we know you
Speaker 1: can buy anyone. You know, you have incredible American celebrities
Speaker 1: selling express those in Germany and Italy. In France, everyone
Speaker 1: has a price, almost everyone. I mean, that's one I
Speaker 1: would like to always them to work with, and that's
Speaker 1: Bruce sprincetein it doesn't have a price. Bruce sprinceteen want
Speaker 1: and dos we know that, but it's very often about
Speaker 1: a check book. And the use I like about endoughsters
Speaker 1: is when they are themselves. I spoke of authenticity before.
Speaker 1: This is exactly what I'm looking for now. If we
Speaker 1: talk about music, that's my favorite obviously, and that's where
Speaker 1: I said in the beginning, when it's great, when thanks
Speaker 1: in life come full circle, I've never been dealing as
Speaker 1: much with music as i'm today. You know, so the
Speaker 1: failed music producer is now dealing with all the music powerhouses.
Speaker 1: Of this maybe a secret, so I don't want to
Speaker 1: let it out. But you said, not only do you
Speaker 1: have a persona for every brand, but you have a
Speaker 1: sound You have the music for every brand. Totally have
Speaker 1: a music for every brand. I mean the soundtrack of
Speaker 1: the brand is what I call my playlist. So I think,
Speaker 1: to a marketer, music and radio are the most amazing
Speaker 1: tool you can dream of, first because it helps you
Speaker 1: carving your special place in the culture. Second because it
Speaker 1: gets you the perfect connection with your target. And now
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of radio as much as I'm thinking of music.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's exactly what I'm buying when I have
Speaker 1: a radio media buy, I buy an incredibly personal connection
Speaker 1: to the target. You got a friend, that's what are
Speaker 1: people on the exactly what it is brand talking to
Speaker 1: them and third, and that's maybe more for the music.
Speaker 1: It helps you amplify the brand personality. Clearly, if you
Speaker 1: select the right genre in a very consistent manner, it
Speaker 1: will help you identify a brand in a commercial. That's
Speaker 1: kind of a subconscious connection with the consumer. And by
Speaker 1: the way, indeed I hear the music, I can tell
Speaker 1: you which car you're talking about. You really have done
Speaker 1: an admirable exactly. So. But what is super important, by
Speaker 1: the way, I mean, what we try to do with music.
Speaker 1: So obviously we partnered with many many artists. I think
Speaker 1: the biggest achievements are when you are able to break
Speaker 1: a new song. That's really what I like ex Ambassadors.
Speaker 1: Ex Ambassadors as an example, with Renegade literally a song literally. Yeah,
Speaker 1: music and marketing Day is a kind of a secret sauce.
Speaker 1: And what's funny, by the way, Bob, is that I
Speaker 1: came up with that thing kind of you know, I
Speaker 1: made it up on a fire chat with you in Detroit,
Speaker 1: um somewhere, and then I wrote it down and then
Speaker 1: it became kind of my religion when it comes to music.
Speaker 1: So what is it about. I think, if you really
Speaker 1: want to connect in a very organic manner, A song
Speaker 1: and a campaign you have to look at for l
Speaker 1: the sound, the lyrics, the alignment with the audience, and
Speaker 1: the following of the artists. So I mean sound is
Speaker 1: about authenticity. The sound will make it sound deep or
Speaker 1: Dodge or ram or crass or none of them. So
Speaker 1: that's obviously super important to JEEP. Would be rock in
Speaker 1: the rock, folk, whatever. Again I said authenticity, adventure, Americana.
Speaker 1: It cannot be anything else then American. My ideal sound
Speaker 1: for Jeep is queen meat. Imagine dragons, you know, something
Speaker 1: very nthemic. That's the Jeep sound I'm dreaming of. And
Speaker 1: obviously country music his home of ram, and hard rock
Speaker 1: his home of Dodge and so on. Then, as I
Speaker 1: said before, a good at needs to be meaningful, no nonsense,
Speaker 1: and the lyrics are going to make it meaningful or not.
Speaker 1: You know, I was mentioning one Republics connection or the
Speaker 1: Renegade song that was all meaning. Then it needs to
Speaker 1: be relevant. What made the magic of the Eminem campaign
Speaker 1: is that obviously the lyrics and the alignment of Eminem
Speaker 1: himself made the whole message relevant. And then, as I
Speaker 1: said before, if you want to be relatable, you need
Speaker 1: to think of your audience and who they relate to.
Speaker 1: What I think is great about this coming full circle
Speaker 1: about music is that I can totally relate to the
Speaker 1: challenge that is breaking a new song. As a former producer,
Speaker 1: I know how exhausting it is to promote a new tract.
Speaker 1: Is slow, it's expensive, and it's always a very long shot,
Speaker 1: which is exactly why the smartest labels are looking for
Speaker 1: shortcuts and they come to us. They understand that I
Speaker 1: will never misuse the creative work and do bad marketing
Speaker 1: with it. But on the other hand, it's a win
Speaker 1: win and it feels good because it's always about helping
Speaker 1: a good cause. I mean, and that's back to my
Speaker 1: French roots, about this romantic way to see a business,
Speaker 1: music and culture differently worth helping. So Olivier, we've gone
Speaker 1: full circle. We've gone from you started in music, you
Speaker 1: had to get out of it to get a real job,
Speaker 1: and you've come back to being this genius of marketing
Speaker 1: and you're back to music. So let me end with
Speaker 1: the way we always end every episode. We're gonna do
Speaker 1: two things. It's back to math and magic. Think about
Speaker 1: the analytical, the master of the numbers to run a
Speaker 1: business the master of data. Who's the greatest mathematician you've known?
Speaker 1: I would say you want Sebasin Bach. He made music
Speaker 1: out of myth. Okay, we'll move to magic. Then, who's
Speaker 1: the greatest magician you know? Not including you? Definitely you
Speaker 1: want sea music out of love it? Olivier, Thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you. Here are some things I heard in my
Speaker 1: conversation with Olivier and Olivier's words. A brand, it should
Speaker 1: make a statement. It should come with the purpose and
Speaker 1: a promise to One of Olivier's tricks is to come
Speaker 1: up with a soundtrack for every brand he manages. It's
Speaker 1: a novel way to understand and communicate the spirit of
Speaker 1: the brand. Three, don't run away from who you are.
Speaker 1: Figure out how to make it work for you. Imported
Speaker 1: from Detroit did exactly that. Thanks for listening. I'm Bob Pittman.
Speaker 1: That's it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening
Speaker 1: to Math and Magic, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: This show is hosted by Bob Pittman. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: Sue Schillinger for booking and wrangling our wonderful talent, which
Speaker 1: is no small feat Nikkiatore for pulling research bill plaques
Speaker 1: and Michael Asar for their recording help, our editor Ryan Murdoch,
Speaker 1: and of course Gail Raoul, Eric Angel, Noel Mango and
Speaker 1: everyone who helped bring this show to your ears. Until
Speaker 1: next time,