When Kid Rock’s voice wrapped up a national TV ad about Detroit during a third inning commercial break in Sunday’s World Series telecast — with the words “Opportunity is made in Detroit” — it was the culmination of a five-day scramble by Quicken Loans and the Detroit rock star to send a big message to the nation.
“Kid Rock was out in California when we decided to do it, but he told us, ‘Sure, just get me the stuff, (a script), and I’ll figure it out,’” Matt Cullen said today, explaining how the TV spot, which touted Detroit as “an explosive high-tech corridor located at the intersection of muscle and brains,” came together.
Cullen, president and CEO of Rock Ventures, the umbrella entity for Quicken-affiliated companies owned by Dan Gilbert, said the idea was hatched about a week ago, after it was clear San Francisco would be the Tigers’ World Series opponent.
“People think of San Francisco as a place with all the startups and the IT and the new economy stuff, and we wanted to make the point that Detroit has many of those same characteristics today,” Cullen said.
The 60-second spot was produced internally by Quicken Loans, and coordinated with Major League Baseball, the Tigers, Comerica Bank and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The ad features a clip of concert footage from a joint DSO-Kid Rock concert in May, arranged by Dan Gilbert, that raised $1 million for the cash-strapped DSO.
“Over time we think this is a theme as far as what’s going on in the city, opportunity made here in Detroit,” said Cullen, noting that a new website, www.opportunitydetroit.com, was launched as the TV ad made its debut.
Quicken had planned to air the spot again tonight at World Series Game 5, but of course, that won’t happen because the Tigers were swept. Cullen didn’t say what the air time cost to run the ad Sunday.
Kid Rock did the voice-over without pay, Cullen added.
Obviously, the World Series ad was reminiscent of the memorable Chrysler ad featuring Eminem during the 2011 Super Bowl, which was the launching point for Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit” promotional effort that continues today.
Quicken also had a huge outdoor billboard banner ad on display behind the scoreboard in left-center field during the weekend World Series games.
In addition to moving Quicken Loans headquarters from Livonia to downtown Detroit in 2010, Dan Gilbert has acquired about 3 million square feet of commercial real estate downtown and moved 6,500 employees of Quicken affiliated companies into the city.
Gilbert, Cullen and other Quicken/Rock executives have also helped to recruit other companies including Chrysler and Twitter to put offices and people downtown.
