Mini Drivers Dream Up the Craziest, Coolest Test Drives Ever … and Then Go Do Them 10 amazing videos introduce the new Hardtop ByDavid Gianatasio

• April 4, 2014, 12:07 PM EDT

I'm positively floored by the fun series of Web videos by Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners and Tool of North America introducing the BMW Mini Cooper Hardtop.

Client and agency asked real Mini owners to think up creative "test drives" to showcase the vehicles. After receiving 800 submissions, they produced 10 videos. The work strikes a happy balance between user-generated content and traditional advertising, with the owners' ideas sparking consistently entertaining, engaging and, in some cases, surprising results.

Running between one and two minutes each, and starring the owners who proposed the concepts, some of the vignettes are simple, others quite involved.

But there's isn't a lemon in the lot.

Highlights include "Getting Medieval," which shows heavily armed and armored knights jousting in their Minis; "Midnight Black Light," with LED headlamps replaced by black lights that cut through a dazzling landscape of fluorescent paint; and my favorite, "Sex Appeal," a tongue-in-cheek, Burt Reynolds/Cosmo-style photo shoot with scented candles, a spray-on tan, bulging obliques—and probably a car in there somewhere, too.

"I was very happy to play the fool—it was supposed to be a spoof and purposely goofy—and the crew were impressed with my willingness to look like an ass," Thomas Lhamon, a chemistry teacher and the star of "Sex Appeal," tells AdFreak of his racy test drive. He wanted to see how many Facebook likes he could generate by posing with the Hardtop, and his video highlights the car's connected apps.

In fact, all mentions of specific brand attributes feel unforced and logical. For example, "Parallel Universe" has Minis squeezing between elephants, shopping carts and even planets to showcase parking-assistance technology, while "Foot-to-Pedal Style," all about shopping for cute shoes, touts cargo space.

Though each is amusing in its own right, the 10 videos, posted below, work especially well when viewed as a series. There's also a whole microsite here. All told, these owners did a fantastic job of generating ideas. Maybe they should shift into advertising. Actually, with this campaign, I guess they have.

Volkswagen Type 2: Last Wish

The world's last Type 2 (also known as Kombi) was produced in Brazil in December 2013. To pay tribute to this international icon, Volkswagen do Brasil launched a campaign created by advertisement agency AlmapBBDO, comprising print and digital media. Through magazines the automaker announced the "de-launching" of the model. On the Type 2 website - www.vw.com.br/kombi - users were invited to tell stories they had lived in a Kombi, and the van published a will including 15 last wishes. The final one was to return home and rejoin the family. 

On the road
The documentary took six months in the making. The film gathers scenes from people who went through special moments with a Type 2, going from Owings Mills, in the suburbs of Baltimore (USA) where designer Bob Hieronimous receives a gift from the car, all the way across the ocean to Amsfort, in the Netherlands, where the Kombi meets its brother Ben Pon Jr. before finally leaving. The soundtrack was composed by Lucas Lima.

http://www.bestadsontv.com/ad/61353/VW-Type-2-Last-Wish

Audi South Africa: #AudiA3Exchange

In the first half of 2013, an 18-wheeler truck drove across South Africa, guided by the tweets of hopeful South Africans. Inside the truck: a new Audi A3 Sportback. Outside: a social media frenzy. The Idea: Audi A3 Exchange. An opportunity for people to exchange their own car for the new Audi A3 that was inside the truck.
The campaign launched with TV, radio, online and the truck itself, all sending people to our microsite or mobi-site. Here people could enter, choose their Exchange City and monitor the truckâs progress in real time. Agency: Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town

After 3 weeks, more than 50 000 tweets guided the Exchange Truck to its final destination â Joâburg. Three finalists were put through a series of challenges. Each challenge was designed to demonstrate a feature of the new A3. The finalist who completed all four challenges in the fastest time got to exchange their car for the new Audi A3 Sportback.

Over the 3 week campaign period, 11 310 people entered to exchange their own car. The campaign generated over 50 437 tweets and Audi South Africa was trending on Twitter within 5 hours of the campaign going live. Audi South Africa increased their Twitter following by 68% in 3 weeks and generated R3 116 654 worth of earned media. And, most importantly, the interest in the A3 Sportback on the Audi website tripled, resulting in more than 100 real life test drives per week.

An Inside Look at Nissan’s Vine and Instagram Video TV Commercial

by Amina Elahi - Jul. 29, 2013 at 8:00 am

By now, brands’ use of micro-video apps Vine and Instagram video is well-documented. Tapping into networks full of smartphone users hungry for visual content has given brands yet another way to reach and interact with their customers. Yet even as companies scramble to create mini-films to delight and entertain their audiences, who those clips reach is typically limited to mobile device users.

Despite the rise of new media, traditional advertising platforms maintain their vast reach and offer something else Vine and Instagram video don’t: frequency. Whereas, in advertising terms, reach refers to the number of people who see an ad, frequency denotes how many times each individual is exposed to it. For advertisers, both metrics are important, and achieving balance between them is a key goal. While Vine and Instagram are natural environments for such content, each video is likely to be seen only once by a brand’s followers.

In an effort to reach target consumers as well as the rest of America, Nissan USA is running a first-of-its-kind contest that will feature fans’ Vines and Instagram videos in an upcoming 30-second TV spot. Fans of the Nissan Versa Note can visitYourDoorToMore.com to grab printable elements that must be included in their Vine or Instagram video entries. The videos should focus on the entrants’ passions, include the Versa Note printable elements, and be tagged #VersaVid. Six people will win $1,000 Amazon.com gift cards, while three Grand Prize winners’ videos will also be chosen by the marketing team and incorporated into the TV commercial.

Nissan’s Director of Interactive and Social Media Marketing, Erich Marx, is one of the drivers of this campaign. We recently spoke with him to discuss the strategy and logistics behind the commercial.

Having Fun With It

The “Your Door To More” campaign is part of a media push to introduce the new generation of Nissan’s popular hatchback, the Versa, to the nation. Around the world, the same car is known as the Note, and Marx says the new name is a nod to the car’s global success. He also says having a young, active, and single target market opened the door for a fun approach.

“We were intrigued by this micro-video platform. Six seconds — what could you possibly do with six seconds that’s compelling?” Marx says. “But Vine is almost exclusively used by a younger, Millennial demographic. That’s an interesting alignment with our strategy.”

Originally, the marketing plan only included Vine, but with a week to go before the campaign launch, Instagram video came out. Realizing the potential to reach even more people, Marx and his team delayed the contest to make room for the new video tool. At press time, Instagram videos created for Nissan numbered 19, while Viners have created 30.

To Marx, giving Millennials an opportunity to cleverly express themselves in as little as six seconds is a fun challenge. Judging by some of the entries so far, users are taking the opportunity for TV air time seriously. The most creative videos feature stop motion, props and sound effects.

Length Matters

In the raging social media debate surrounding Instagram video vs. Vine, there has been much speculation about which platform will win out in the end. According to Marx, this contest is a mini-experiment testing that. “I think a lot of people felt that Instagram was better because it gives you 15 seconds,” Marx says. “It’s a much bigger challenge than you think.”

Consider that most standard TV ads run in 15 or 30-second formats, sandwiched between full-length content. On mobile platforms where everything is served in bite-sized chunks, 15 seconds can feel like an eternity. Based on contest entries to date, it seems fans prefer the shorter Vine format as well.

Tapping Social to Drive Everything

Although the VersaVids will eventually make their way to TV, Marx and his team are soliciting entries through Nissan’s existing social networks. Using Twitter, Facebookand Google Plus, the Nissan social team is inviting over three million fans to participate. That, plus a bit of paid social advertising, is what Marx hopes will get lots of great entries.

For a campaign so centered around social, it’s no surprise that Marx’s measure of success is based on similar metrics. “We’re looking to drive tens of millions of Facebook impressions,” he says. “We’re looking to get 25,000 Twitter engagements, and we’re looking at the number of entries we get too.”

In this campaign, success is not limited to the second screen. For entrants and the Nissan social team alike, the TV commercial at the end of this contest is what’s most at stake. Slated to launch in September, Marx sees the contest as a build-up to the mainstream debut of the micro-video collage that will be one of the Versa Note’s first TV spots.

“The success of the television commercial that we’re able to weave together from the winning entries, we’re hoping that that’s something that can be a big part of the Versa Note broadcast TV launch,” Marx says.

For aspiring mini-videographers, the door to the #VersaVids contest remains open until August 5, 2013. What are you waiting for? Step on it!

http://sproutsocial.com/insights/2013/07/nissan-tv-commercial-vine/

Innovative Audi ad puts viewers in the driver's seat

From: The Australian
July 29, 2013 12:00AM

AUDI Australia has created and shot its first brand campaign in Australia, promoting its "quattro" all-wheel-drive technology as part of a long-term marketing and investment program aimed at making it the top-selling premium car by 2020.

The $3 million "Land of quattro" campaign, which was launched last night, goes to new lengths to get Australians involved with the German marque by inviting people to "remix" and re-edit the TV commercial online.

The resulting user-created versions will be shared on Facebook, and the one Audi judges to be the best will be broadcast on TV at the end of September.

Audi trails its premium car rivals Mercedes-Benz and BMW in Australia, where about 1.1 million cars are expected to be sold in the premium category this year.

Despite the slowing economy, Audi's sales are growing strongly, according to managing director Andrew Doyle.

Sales rose 17.3 per cent to 8152 in the six months from January to June compared with the same period last year, making Australia Audi's 18th biggest market. June was a record month, with 1505 units sold and 1900 orders taken.

"Last year and 2011 -- you could consider them consolidation years for us in Australia," Mr Doyle said.

Globally, in the first six months of this year, Audi's sales were up 6.4 per cent to 780,500 units, trailing BMW (excluding Mini), which was up 7.7 per cent to 804,200, but ahead of Mercedes (up 6.4 per cent to 694,400).

But in Australia, Audi has lost some traction against Mercedes, selling three-quarters as many cars in the six months to June (down from 87 per cent in the full year 2011) thanks partly to its rival's success in the A-segment.

This year Audi has sold 82 per cent as many cars as BMW (down slightly from 83 per cent in 2011).

"We're hot on their heels," Mr Doyle said of his rivals. "We have a plan to catch them. The marketplace is extremely competitive. We're planning to grow share. We see strong opps in the SUV category (and) increased opportunities in the A-segment. Our plan is that by 2020 we'll definitely be No 1 in the marketplace."

Audi will invest $50m in its dealer network in 2013-14 and open five new car dealer franchises.

New products include the launch in October of the RS 6 Avant supercar which will cost $225,000, the most powerful production vehicle in its line-up, and three other RS vehicles. The Q7 SU is already on the market.

For the first time the company has been allowed to shoot its own commercial to promote its "quattro" technology, showcasing Audi in a series of distinctly Australian landscapes, including the red centre, and positioning Australia as the "land of quattro".

The TV commercial, shot by digital agency Holler, used remote-control helicopters to shoot the cars from different angles and distances to provide users with a wealth of different footage to use in their "remixed" versions.

The voiceover and the company's "Vorsprung durch Technik" (Advancement through technology) slogan remain the same, but 85 per cent of the commercial can be changed.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/innovative-audi-ad-puts-viewers-in-the-drivers-seat/story-e6frg996-1226687175592

Ford Creative for TV, print and digital to derive from social


Published in Adweek on February 19, 2013.

Ford's TV, print and digital advertising for the 2014 Fiesta model will be based on user-generated content, the auto giant announced this morning. The all-in approach to UGC is the the freshest piece to the brand's rekindling of a "Fiesta Movement" initiative it first used in 2009, employing creative juice from dozens of consumers as if they were spark plugs. 

In 2009, countless consumers entered to be one of 100 so-called digital influencers who received a free Fiesta for six months. Selected individuals were responsible to complete monthly "challenges" and expected to regularly post about the car on blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. In the end, more than 6,000 people pre-ordered the Fiesta, while the effort accumulated 6.2 million YouTube views, 40 million Twitter impressions and 50,000 pieces of content.

With those kinds of numbers—and in a 2013 that's comparatively more digital/social—Ford brass seemingly cannot help but play it again. Yet this year, the participants will influence creative for the integrated campaign that's set to debut in the coming months.

"It's the first in terms of making the totality of the campaign about user-generated content," claimed Scott Monty, Ford's social media lead, after his Social Media Week presentation today. "We've seen commercials that have been crowd-sourced. We've seen elements of campaigns that have been user-generated. This is an entirely user-generated campaign."

This year's run will offer consumers the chance, once again, to be one of 100 brand ambassadors that get a limited-time gratis Fiesta—though this time for eight months with gas and insurance expenses included. 

Monthly challenges will again be a part of the social media-driven mix. While in 2009 the drivers were all consumers, there will be a smattering of celebrities and Fiesta Movement alumni in the mix during 2013.

In terms of media buys, Ford will partner with American Idol, the Summer X Games and the Bonoaroo Music Festival to promote Fiesta Movement. WPP's Team Detroit is leading the initiative.

"There will be substantial paid media with all of our partners," Monty added. "And it's not just with the big [TV] shows. There are integrations with traditional, digital and social platforms that we've been a part of—Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, etc. It will be a fully integrated paid campaign."