One of the world’s most famous supercar brands has admitted that without the presence of their cars on video games, they might struggle to sell cars.
McLaren Automotive may have produced some of the most iconic car marques of the last 30 years, but when it comes to brand awareness they have some ground to catch up on the traditional Italian powerhouses of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Bugatti.
Brand awareness won’t have been helped by the recent cancellation of the Geneva Motor Show, where the British company were due to exhibit their newest car. The Longtail 765LT, a masterpiece of carbon fibre aerodynamics which is sure to be a favourite on the X-Box and Playstation games.
“We have 12-year-olds bringing their dads into our showrooms, saying they must check out the new McLaren,” said Jolyon Nash, McLaren’s global sales and marketing director.
“Their dad might not be fully aware of us, but I’ve anecdotally heard of some ending up buying a McLaren instead of a rival supercar.”
“Target buyers in certain regions of the world are still not aware that McLaren makes supercars at all.”
Nash freely admits that the brand’s biggest number of eyeballs probably exist in digital form, with the video games ‘which are mainly played by teenagers.’ However that means that the company must double-down on the more traditional mediums of marketing.
“It’s old fashioned hard marketing: talking to customers, getting people into the product – basic hard graft.
“We are still a young automotive brand; we only took our first car to market in mid-2011.
“We’ve enjoyed good growth, but we still have work to do in the broader car market.”