• by Karl Greenberg , October 10, 2006

Honda this week launches a new animated campaign for its 2007 Element utility crossover that introduces a new line of animals, too.

The campaign, via Honda's agency of record Rubin Postaer and Associates, Santa Monica, continues the "Element and Friends" theme begun last year. It is Honda's largest-ever Internet push, according to Tom Peyton, senior manager of national advertising at American Honda Motor Co. The campaign includes over a dozen TV spots, print, Web-based promotions, and the site www.elementandfriends.com.

The ads depict the vehicle as a photo cut-out, conversing with a goat, hamster, lobster, mole, pigeon, rat, and turtle. The campaign also shows off a new vehicle trim, called SC.

The company--which spent $735 million in advertising last year, per Nielsen--has promoted Element through non-traditional marketing since its inception, and won industry acclaim for last year's effort in which keywords were purchased for names of the animals in the ads, such as platypus.

Print ads will run in such active lifestyle books as Backpacker, Bicycling, and Powder, as well as Rolling Stone and Wired, according to Honda. Internet includes video ads and a page on MySpace.com, and sponsorship of SI.com's free desktop downloadable swimsuit calendar in February. To build momentum for the Model Year 2007 campaign, an interactive preview featuring Gil the Crab ran in July and August, the first time the brand has used an Internet preview of its full campaign.