Here is one way to create early brand loyalty. Toyota Japan has created a game called Backseat Driver that gets your children involved in where ever you are driving and may be a good option after they've bored themselves of playing Angry Birds for the 1 millionth time in the car.
To play the application you have to be moving because the app moves the car using your phone's GPS movements and when the car turns the car in the game turns too. I suppose you could walk your backseat drive, but sitting stationary results in a boring game.
Your child can even share their customized car on twitter, something my 5 year old twins will definitely not be doing.
It is a fun way to make driving a bit more interesting for your child and I can't wait to test how long it holds a 5 year boy's interest. We'll see.
The best automotive ad I’ve seen in a long time isn’t for a car, truck or SUV. No the best ad out there is for a video game. “An Open Door” is a television spot for the new Xbox Forza Motorsport 3 video game. I know this is unfair. It’s a commercial full of drool-worthy dream cars and besides they are not selling a car.
The ad is selling a passion, an experience. It isn’t racing cars and it isn’t crashing cars. It’s just a bunch of cars with their driver’s door wide open waiting patiently for someone to step in and mash the pedal. It’s pure emotional advertising at its best.
It’s not like most car ads, correction every car ad, that communicates the functionality of a navigation system or how an all-wheel drive system functions. Yawn...
Peter M. De Lorenzo shared a story on Autoline After Hours from a long time reader of his Auto Extremist column. Jack Jason, a car salesman from Black Rock, CT, sent De Lorenzo this comment after Peter criticized most of today’s automotive marketing in a recent column:
“You can lead a horse to water, but how can you make it drink?
Today’s marketers want to educate the horse- have it know all about the benefits of water. That’s not their job. How do you make the horse drink? Make the bastard thirsty. That’s what marketing is supposed to do. Are there any car ads that do that today? I can’t think of one and I’m dying of thirst.”
This dealer is absolutely correct. I think the reason automotive marketers have forgotten about selling desire is that the products have become so complex that everyone looks at the features list, determines what is new and what is hopefully a differentiator. Well guess what, a better navigation system doesn’t sell a car. Sure it helps, but people want a vehicle that is desirable that conveys who they are and that they are a passionate, interesting person.
Meanwhile we are off telling them how many iPods they can hookup to the stereo and which cell phone works with the hands-free calling.
Sell the desire. Learn from the Forza ad. Remember cars are for driving silly. Show people why your car is the one they want to drive and please save the instruction manual for the frustrating ownership experience.
When you have a highly successful marketing campaign what should you do? Extend, extend, extend… And this is what Kia is doing with their Soul’s hamster campaign. Their TV spots have been very well received and now they are reaching out into social media with “Go Hamster Go” an online game on Facebook.
The game uses augmented reality technology, requiring a webcam. The object is to drop as many hamsters into a Kia Soul as you can in a timed race. You drop each hamster “using the magnet that will appear on your forehead.” Sound odd? Sure but this is a Kia Soul and it’s a bit odd too, but like the car the game is some fun odd.
Your image appears in the background as hamsters roll down an assembly belt and you move your head back and forth to snag hamsters and drop them in Kia Souls that appear, each time the color of the Soul changes featuring the different colors the car comes in. Occasionally, a vehicle feature also appears to the side.
The game promotes Facebook behaviors like “Challenge a Friend” and “Publish” your score which will also inspire more usage as friends share across their social network. I always like the challenge aspect as it gets others who may not be interested in the brand or product at least interested in beating their friend at a game.
The bad part is that there are some barriers to playing. One you need a computer with a webcam and you need to install some software to play, which will cause some drop-off in people playing each other. I sent the game to five friends at work and realized none of them have webcams on their laptops, maybe they can use it at home, if they remember.
Overall the execution is well done. The game play is a bit different but that’s part of its appeal. It’s challenging which is a good thing. Most importantly, it extends the already popular hamster idea a bit further while also making the vehicle a prominent part of the game’s engagement.
I always love hearing case studies. Really. Must be a sickness, but there is something very cool about seeing how effective or ineffective things are within the business world, that’s why I was very intrigued when I received an email from MediaPost featuring an article entitled, Nissan's Agency Details Online Branding Success.
The article discusses some great strides by one of Nissan’s ad agencies, Tequila USA, made with a very limited budget to promote the Nissan Rogue SUV. They went the viral video route along with a video game featured on the Nissan USA website.
Two viral videos were done called “Maze Master” that featured the use of a wooden tilt-board game that was also turned into an online video game.
What’s interesting about the MediaPost article are the success claims by Kristi Vandenbosch, president at Tequila USA. The numbers just don’t ad up.
The campaign's results were so successful they even surprised Vandenbosch, she said. In four weeks, the YouTube videos were viewed more than 200,000 times.
I went on YouTube this afternoon and both videos had about 25,000 views each, putting the combined total 75% less than the claimed 200,000 views. I’m guessing the 200,000 number includes views of the videos on Nissan’s own website which really isn’t that surprising when you consider their web site has traffic going to it from all of their spend on media and search engine optimization.
"Many car dealerships were starting to see waiting lists to buy the car, which they hadn't seen in quite some time," Vandenbosch said.
Really? The sales numbers reflect a pretty steady sales volume for the Nissan Rogue. This is a good thing in a down economy where a lot of products were taking double-digit year-over-year sales hits (the Rogue only had one negative month in November with a –2.8% sales that month.) So, it looks like the car was beating the industry trend, but waiting lists? That’s pretty hard to believe based on the sales numbers and no significant jumps in sales.
Sales numbers not matching up with marketing success claims certainly isn’t news. I remember a good friend of mine at the Michigan MBA program who once told our marketing class that marketers just round to the nearest million. I just wish marketing case studies given at conferences were more reliable with their results. I’m always suspicious just as I was reading the MediaPost article today. Oh well, at least I learned something about Nissan’s marketing efforts with the Rogue and played a decent automotive video game that wasn't your atypical car race game.
To play the application you have to be moving because the app moves the car using your phone's GPS movements and when the car turns the car in the game turns too. I suppose you could walk your backseat drive, but sitting stationary results in a boring game. 
