Honda’s new campaign for the 2016 Civic is true to form, with high-art visuals plus a big dose of animated fantasia. It is a creative palette that the automaker’s U.S. agency
RPA has been keying into with recent campaigns. But the new effort is also deep into social media and native content, via partnerships with
the likes of BuzzFeed and Snapchat.
The launch spot for the campaign shows an engineer as “dreamer” from
whose imagination, literally, a Civic sedan emerges and then travels on a wild ride through imagined forests, mountains, doing loops and rollercoaster turns around the engineer's head. The national
and cable ad is set to a new song, “Walking on a Dream,” by Empire of the Sun, and closes with the Civic pulling to a stop in a real setting, with V.O. saying “Direct from our
imagination. The all-new Civic.”
advertisement
advertisement
The social aspect of the campaign includes marquee video ads on Instagram, starting Jan. 8, plus paid media through March. Honda says that on
Jan. 8, it will also debut on the Snapchat platform augmented with takeovers on gaming site IGN, and BuzzFeed Discover, with video ads also running across national and regional Snapchat Live Stories.
On Instagram, Honda created three marquee ads, similar to a home-page takeover, that are being shown as the first promoted post that visitors see when they open up their Instagram. Then
they are served a new Honda Civic video if they check their Instagram account multiple times throughout the day, per a RPA spokesperson. She says the concept is termed "Bending Reality,“ which
shows the vehicle in an environment that seems normal at first, but provides an unexpected twist. “This aligns with the overall strategy that the new Civic is one that you never saw
coming.”
For the Snapchat program, when a user takes a snap, they will be offered multiple filter options, depending on their location, that they can apply to their photo
before they post to their followers. One of the options is the Civic filter, which will be available nationally. The Civic filter includes a silhouetted image of the Civic along with “They
See Me Rollin’” text at the top.
BuzzFeed, meanwhile, has created three 10-second videos that will run on their Discover channel on Jan. 8. BuzzFeed worked directly with
Honda to create this content, while RPA created three 10-second videos featuring Lopez. Those videos, with a “New Year’s Resolution” theme, will run as takeover content on the IGN
Discover channel, and across other Discover and Live Stories channels.
There is also a Red Bull and Twitch partnership to host a Hearthstone gaming tournament that will be broadcast
live from Red Bull Studios to Twitch’s audience. Honda will have branding at the actual event being broadcast and will have digital banners running on their websites.
Not to
be left out, men’s lifestyle brand Thrillist will design a driving sneaker inspired by the new Civic, which will be showcased at a Thrillist-hosted launch event. Honda has also tapped graphics
arts influencers like
Wesley Grim to create fanciful images of the Civic, with paid targeted media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is also
planned.
And there are old-school print ads showing the Civic springing out of a Honda engineer’s open hinged head, slated for Road & Track, Autoweek, Sports
Illustrated, People, ESPN The Magazine and US Weekly. Digital launches with homepage takeovers on Yahoo and YouTube.