Campaign Imminent Update: Rivian announces retail store in Brooklyn, NY (Score 74)

Update: Rivian is opening a showroom in Williamsburg, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. The showroom is mainly to promote the R1T pickup truck and the R1s SUV, which are both scheduled to hit the market this summer. The company is planning on opening nine showrooms in total and 41 service centers. Consumers will not be able to buy vehicles from showrooms as they are just a place to view and test drive the vehicles. These showrooms could lead to opportunities for those that own OOH ad space. 

Agency & martech readers-- Keep reaching out to the company's new sales and marketing VP Laura Schwab to be top-of-mind. Rivian is only working with creative agency Droga5 as of now. I recommend offering media and digital assistance. 

The article below was originally published on February 16:

Tesla competitor Rivian is aiming for an IPO of $50b+ as soon as September 2021, reportedly. The EV startup is backed by Amazon and Ford. It has raised over $8b to date, having most recently raised a private equity round of $2.65b in January 2021, according to Crunchbase.

Rivian has recently made three important hires. First, in January 2021, the company selected Laura Schwab as its new sales and marketing VP; since right now, that is Rivian's top marketing role, she now serves in the company's CMO-level position.

Second, Chris Wollen, who joined Rivian as its first CMO in 2018, departed the next year. However, in October 2020, the company promoted Jiten Behl, its chief strategy officer of four years, to chief growth officer. His responsibilities now include brand, marketing, digital commerce and analytics duties.

Additionally, in January 2021, Rivian hired senior brand and creative operations manager Kim Johnston. These marketing shifts reveal the company will have a significant focus on marketing efforts when it makes its first product launch later this year.

Rivian has a deal with Amazon to build 100k custom electric delivery vans by 2030. Until then, the companies said 10k of the vans will be making deliveries on the road by 2022. The van will have three different models and be able to go around 150 miles on a single charge.

The production and US delivery of Rivian's debut consumer EV, the R1T pickup, are expected to start in June 2021. Then, the company's R2S SUV will be deliverable in August 2021.

Rivian didn't invest in digital ads in 2020, according to Pathmatics, after having invested roughly $600 in 2019. This makes sense considering the company's consumer vehicles haven't yet dropped; keep an eye out for a sharp increase in spend once they do so, especially once Rivian has more funds at its disposal from going public. Its target demographic will likely have a male skew, and remember its main competitor will be Tesla.

Agency & martech readers - Considering Rivian has a new marketing leader, is about to go public and will soon debut its first consumer-oriented cars, it's likely it could seek new agency partners to support these efforts. Get in touch to see what work is available. The company assigned its creative remit to Droga5 in 2018.