• by Karl Greenberg , August 8, 2011

Honda has been running the Honda Civic Tour for ten years. But this is the first time the tour has brought back an original band from the tour's first outing. The 38-city tour features Blink-182, which launched the yearly Honda Civic entertainment venture back in 2001.

Also on the road and co-featured is My Chemical Romance. As it has in previous tours, Honda will launch promotional activities for the Civic -- the Civic Si Coupe in this case -- that involves a version modified to the band's specifications and signed by band members. But this year, there will also be a Honda CBR250R motorcycle that bears the stamp of My Chemical Romance. The company will run promotions in concert markets and online, dangling the vehicles as grand prizes.

Honda says some two million people have seen tour concerts over the past decade, during which the automaker has backed Paramore, Black Eyed Peas, Fall Out Boy, Everclear, Incubus, Good Charlotte, New Found Glory, Dashboard Confessional, Maroon 5 and Panic at the Disco.

The automaker says the tour, which is handled by the Venice, Calif.-based Marketing Factory, culminates at the Hollywood Bowl on Oct. 8. Honda says that in tour cities it will have electronic touchpad kiosks that allow attendees to enter for a chance to win the car or motorcycle as well as a trip to the Los Angeles final concert, including two signed guitars, front-row seats, and a meet-and-greet with both bands at the Hollywood Bowl. Entry is also at HondaCivicTour.com.

Honda is also supporting the tour with a mobile app, presented by Honda Financial Services, that has basic tour and ticketing info, news, promotions, and updates. There are also closed-circuit, interactive TV channels at center stage, showing a stream of band videos, PSAs and music videos. People can tweet, using the #hondacivictour hashtag to get their message displayed on-screen.

Blink-182 is on the tour after having released its first record of new music in eight years. Honda did a promotion around the single from the album, "Up All Night," from the upcoming "Neighborhoods" album. After the song's radio debut, Honda allowed people to log in to buy $20 tickets for 2011 Honda Civic Tour dates.

Honda says it is also partnering with non-profits Reverb and Surfrider Foundation to raise awareness around the issues of single-use plastics and water quality.