Tried-and-true plans for debuting a new vehicle are practically set in stone in the automotive industry: a few arranged, camouflaged vehicle photos, followed by a fervent denial from the automaker—and then later, an admission that a vehicle is coming followed by the silk being pulled off in celebratory fashion.
Slate skipped all of that and put on a brand debut and vehicle pageant all at once. That is why the automaker is Newsweek’s World’s Greatest Auto Disruptors Marketing Disruptor of the Year.
“Working in the echo chamber of stealth mode presented unique challenges but also great opportunity,” Slate’s Chief Commercial Officer Jeremy Snyder told Newsweek. “We studied where the industry was going and how it was communicating to its customers, so that in many ways, we could do the opposite. There was an intense focus on putting the story together that we wanted to tell and answering the ultimate question of, why should people care about Slate?”
The stealth mode approach was a conscious effort of both the public relations and marketing teams, who worked side by side in the background to craft the Slate identity, messaging and image ahead of the debut.
“The consistent partnership between PR and marketing and the commitment to stealth mode for the company was critical in keeping our brand and vehicle under wraps, right up until we did the unthinkable and dropped it on a street in Los Angeles, before the reveal,” said Slate’s Head of Brand & Marketing Ben Whitla.
“We had to trust our instincts,” Slate’s Head of Public Relations and Communications Jeff Jablansky chimed in.
But that wasn’t always an easy choice. “Slate was launching at a moment in time when there was greater skepticism than optimism around new car brands and specifically EV manufacturers. We had one chance to make a positive first impression of the brand—and the vehicle—and that meant sharing how much we had accomplished in stealth. We drove eight test vehicles onto the stage to ‘show’ rather than ‘tell’ our story when typically, one show car is debuted,” Snyder explained.
Slate is a startup, and there is no getting around the tight budgetary concerns related to that type of enterprise. Instead of being hamstrung by that, the company leveraged it.
Snyder said: “We can’t outspend the competition, so we do a lot ourselves. We built a small team of mission-driven individuals to develop our brand values. We couldn’t play it safe. We focused on the vacuum that’s been formed as the industry has moved toward more stuff, autonomy and luxury. We focused on personalization, utility, affordability and, most importantly, we don’t take ourselves too seriously.”
How We Did It: To determine the candidates for this year’s World’s Greatest Auto Disruptors, Newsweek’s Autos team, led by Senior Autos Editor Eileen Falkenberg-Hull, compiled a list considering every major automaker in each of the award categories. Brands, teams and individuals were nominated based on their cumulative merits for the past year, after combing through each candidate’s accomplishments in the areas of future product planning, business strategy, technology, marketing, engineering, sustainability, manufacturing, community and research and development. To be considered, candidates had to be employing executive decision-making, corporate strategy, product development and publicity in a way that is driving fundamental, transformative change in the automotive market, with measurable real-world results—or have clear and demonstrable potential to do so. The Legacy award honors an individual who has achieved these results over decades in the industry. The list of nominees was narrowed by Autos editors. Winners were chosen after a consensus was reached amongst the Autos team and Newsweek top editors.