Commentary

Taking Innovation For A Spin (By Using Some Innovative Digital Media Spin)

by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, April 7, 2013

Amanda Levy and Steve Savic of Nissan digital shop Critical Mass kicked off the final day of the Video Insider Summit gave new meaning to the concept of Madison Avenue “spin,” showing a case study about an especially difficult marketing challenge: Selling something that doesn’t actually exist -- yet.

Nissan, which currently represents just under 8% of U.S. auto sales, has an ambitious goal to boost its market share to 10%, but the challenge is that it will be marketing products that don’t actually exist in the real world yet. All five of Nissan’s core car models are being completely redesigned for a relaunch and therefore, under wraps. Literally, all the Critical Mass team would show is five cars in a hangar draped with drop cloths.

So how do you “pre-sell” cars that don’t yet exist? Virtually, of course. So working with sister Nissan shop Chiat Day, the Critical Mass team developed a video game called the GT Academy enabling users to virtually drive and race a high performance Nissan racing car.

So while the Chiat Day team were on the racetrack filming content for TV commercials, the Critical Mass team was piggy-backing to get content for Web extensions.

The campaign leverages Nissan’s “take innovation for a spin” with some new and innovative marketing spin.

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