If you’ve been on the fence on which car to purchase, maybe anime icon Sailor Moon can change your mind. Ford has just released a new ad featuring Sailor Moon upselling the new Ford Focus.
As millennials reach driving age, they’re starting to represent a new car buying market. This has Ford looking at different ways to appeal to them, most notably, nostalgia.
“We’ve seen amazing success with our Overdubs series targeting millennials,” said Ford Communications Representative Debra Hotaling. “By tapping into properties like Dragon Ball Z, Metal Gear Solid and, now, Sailor Moon, we’ve seen their fans respond passionately and enthusiastically.”
According to Ford, these ads are more than just viral hits. The ads have been translating to more attention and traffic on Ford products. “We saw strong lifts in product consideration,” Hotaling added, “and ad recall was off the charts for Dragon Ball Z, but the great stuff is seeing the fans comment and respond, noting the little details we nailed (or missed). We’ve even seen a bunch of remixes and fan videos emulating Overdubs, title treatment and all!”
With Sailor Moon, Ford wants to target female millennials with greater focus. “We approached Sailor Moon to target female millennials, yes, but definitely focused on the Sailor Moon fan base to ultimately determine our distribution strategy.” Hotaling said, “We’re already seeing great sentiment coming in on YouTube and Facebook on this Sailor Moon execution.”
Like many anime fans, having the original voice actors they remember from their childhood is critically important, and Ford made that a priority. “Getting the original voice talent is actually something we focus on to make sure we honor each series and don’t exploit it. Fans will call you out for that and we see so many people giving us credit for using the talent they love.”
Maybe we’ll see some Sailor Moon decals on the Ford GT competing in Le Mans.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.