• by Karl Greenberg , July 2, 2010

Nissan has signed with Apple's advertising platform iAd to promote its zero-emission Nissan Leaf electric car. Nissan is the only automotive brand to date to use the platform.

Company reps say the iAds will help the company reach early adopters and will also target the 15,000 or so customers who have already placed reservations for the car, which will be available in December, with mass-market availability by 2012.

Apple says iAd lets marketers advertise with rich media like video, launch games and allows purchase without compelling users to leave the app in which the ad is embedded.

The iAd platform also runs on iPod touch. AT&T, Best Buy, Campbell Soup Company, Chanel, Citi, DirecTV, GEICO, GE, JCPenney, Liberty Mutual Group, Sears, State Farm, Target, Turner Broadcasting System, Unilever and The Walt Disney Studios will also advertise on iAd, per a company release in June. Commitments for this year have surpassed $60 million, or almost 50% of the total forecast for U.S. mobile ad spending for the second half of 2010.

Nissan is promoting the deal with a video touting both the Leaf and the iAd platform by promoting Leaf as analogous, technologically, to the iPhone. The video starts with a shot of a CGI Leaf rotating 360-degrees.

The VO says: "This is the Nissan Leaf; it's 100% electric, uses no gas and has no tail-pipe. It is the first mass-market electric car and it has been reserved by over 14,000 people." Then the video shows the iPhone. "This is the iPhone. It is also 100% electric. And with millions of users, it is the perfect match for the Nissan Leaf."

The video then shows the functionality of the ad platform, and that users can reserve the car within the app, which will also run a asweepstakes built into the iAd. It dangles a new Leaf as grand prize.