Hal Riney’s Marketing of the Saturn in the 1990s

Hal Riney was a surprising selection for the original Saturn ad agency and he brought a bold approach to the marketing of the new brand.

According to a Hoover corporate profile, 50 agencies submitted proposals to the committee that was named to hire an agency. However, all 50 were bypassed because Thomas Shafer, Saturn’s director of marketing, wanted a West Coast agency since the West Coast was most receptive to small cars at that time.

Riney had bought the Ogilvy & Mather office in San Francisco and renamed it Hal Riney & Partners. When his agency was named Saturn’s "communications partner" he presented several proposals which were bold for the early 1990s;

• The Saturn cars would all be called Saturn, with numbers instead of names identifying different models.
• All Saturn dealers would be named "Saturn of" followed by the name of the area in which they were located. Riney wanted everything focused on the Saturn name.
• Saturn advertising would focus on humans instead of the machine and the ads would be "emotionally driven."
• The Saturn slogan was "A different kind of company. A different kind of car."

Riney insisted that employees play a major role in marketing the cars. He produced a documentary called "Spring, in Spring Hill" to explain the new Saturn culture to employees, vendors and the news media. A Riney staffer said the documentary was designed to get Saturn’s stakeholders "rooting for Saturn, the company." They did.

It turned into the most successful new model introduction in GM history.

In 2003, the agency was sold to the Publicis Group of Paris and renamed Publicis & Hal Riney.

Riney went on to conduct highly praised campaigns for Gallo Wine. His ad series, "It's Morning Again in America," helped reelect Ronald Reagan.

Riney died in March 2008 at age 75.

References:

• San Francisco Gate.com, March 26, 2008
• Hoover profile, Saturn Corporation, Answers.com

Saturn: GM's Dream Car