• by Karl Greenberg , May 13, 2009

Nissan is engaging sports, health and lifestyle magazine publisher Rodale, Inc. for a third year to support its "Master the SHIFT_" integrated marketing program. The effort, which features top athletes as spokespeople, is intended to link Nissan's Altima to sports-performance and active lifestyle consumers.

Altima will get multi-level support through sponsorship presence at a series of running and cycling races nationwide, master trainer endorsements, online engagement, and in-book media. Central to the effort is a quartet of top athletes and trainers who will be featured in Nissan advertising and at events.

Chris Carmichael, former Olympian, best-selling author, and Lance Armstrong's coach; Eddie George, Heisman Trophy winner and former NFL great; Ryan Hall, Olympic distance runner and American record holder, and Tara Stiles, founder of Strala yoga and a model and yoga activist, will be featured in an ongoing print and online campaign in such Rodale titles as Bicycling, Men's Health, Mountain Bike, Runner's World, Running Times and Women's Health.

The ads frame the masters' training tips and lifestyle advice with Altima advertising. J. Schaffer, manager of Nissan marketing, says Nissan is focusing on Altima with the program because the latest Altima is hitting showrooms now and because "it's an important volume brand for us that connects with people who read these titles."

Schaffer says the athletes, called the "Nissan Masters" for the program, animate the program and take it beyond mere advertising.

"They are really the human face of the program," he says, adding that there will be a master at all 13 events Nissan is sponsoring starting with Memorial Day's Bolder Boulder race in Colorado, at which Stiles and Hall will be on hand. At the final race -- the Country Music Marathon in Nashville, Tenn., where Nissan is based -- all four "Nissan Masters" will be on hand.

Rodale created a custom Web site, www.mastertheshift.com, to house Nissan Altima offerings and links to Nissan's consumer site and content featuring each of the masters. The site will also include event listings, gear giveaways and a Nissan Altima sweepstakes.

Schaffer says Nissan has completed shooting sixty individual video segments featuring the four athletes; the videos -- featuring training programs, performance tips, stretching routines and health and lifestyle advice -- will reside on the Web site.

Nissan's relationship with Rodale is effective, says Schaffer, "because it gives us deeper engagement with passionate people who, number one, are aware of the campaign because they see it in the magazines on a regular basis, which leads them to the Web site, where they'll learn what's up with, say, Chris Carmichael, and that creates engagement training, and if they happen to be in the market where we are sponsoring one of the events, it comes back around to seeing the products."