I'm pretty confused by your entire post Sierra.
First, why would Cadillac need to "Re-launch" the ATS and CTS?? The cars are out. They are in showrooms, and they are on the street. They are already advertised. And you propose to go through, blow wads of cash in marketing to do the same thing all over again with the same cars that the public already knows about well into their 2nd year of production??? You entirely lost me and I can't find the logic here.
Second, Cadillac already has built interest in the brand. ATS and CTS are doing pretty well in California. When you see that CTS has both had a huge price jump ($10K I believe) and soft sales, it doesn't take a marketing degree to make the association. ATS is in a similar position. While the people who write checks for cars they like seem to be buying ATS, the majority of buyers who make monthly payments realize that the difference between the ATS and a 3 series is barely more than a pack of gum every day, and the BMW has the image that Cadillac doesn't simply have yet and won't get for years.... Cadillac IS competitive with the German brands in substance. But they don't have the history to charge the same prices. Cadillac should take the pricing approach of Lexus, Infinity, and Acura. They'd be more successful.
Third, the only place I've lived longer than San Francisco and Pittsburgh is San Diego. I was stationed there 3 times, and I lived there in between my Navy and Coast Guard career. That said, let's be honest....thinking that there would be a major unveiling in San Diego's Auto Show is delusional. The San Diego show is a regional auto show the way Philadelphia is to New York, Toledo is to Detroit, and Chicago is to Indianapolis. Downtown Los Angeles is less than 2 hours away, and sets the tone for pretty much everything on the west coast.
Large unveilings are all about press events. People come from all over the world (and their companies pay for it) to go to events where there are a large number of vehicles being unveiled and a lot of key people in the industry showing up for interviews. I was involved with the LA show for years, and was around when they started their campaign to turn it into a major league international car show. To say it's a major effort that involves everyone from planners to industry executives to politicians is an understatement. Point is that the stage has to be set to get the big unveilings. That's why LA has grown from a minor player 20 years ago, to a player on the same level as New York, and arguably bigger than Chicago. The reason I point that out is that I want to stress, unveilings are press and volume public events. Debuting a single model in San Diego would gather local press, and a fraction of the volume of show goers that show up at Phoenix's show.....I didn't use the word "delusional" simply to be mean.
Cadillac has dug itself a hole due to it's pricing. If it cuts prices, it trashes resale value. If it goes too generous on incentives, it loses it's claim to being in the realm of MB and BMW (which it isn't). The only thing Cadillac can do at this point is increase the features on their base models (not a few features, but essentially eliminating their current base models, and selling their midlevel models as base models at base model prices) and market it that way, saving face on pricing and offering more for the same money than the others.
If they are smart enough to do this remains to be seen.