Ad of the Day: Real or Illusion? Honda CR-V Spot Keeps You Guessing

by David Gianatasio of www.adweek.com

Hey, advertisers … stop blowing my mind!

Honda follows Ray-Ban's impressively trippy optical-illusion video with this 60-second European TV spot from mcgarrybowen in London. The spot, called "An Impossible Made Possible," shows the CR-V 1.6 i-DTEC Diesel traversing a surreal landscape of complex and cool visual effects. At one point, we get an Ames room type illusion where a woman blows on her coffee, apparently setting a toy Honda CR-V 1.6 atop a table in motion. It turns out the SUV is really a full-size model parked a few yards behind her … but the weird eye-candy in the scene doesn't end there.

Describing the spot in detail would give too much away. It's a pretty wild ride, packed with imagery that rewards repeat viewing. I especially like how each illusion is ultimately shattered, letting the audience in on the trickery at hand.

The exceedingly stylized clip, directed by Chris Palmer of Gorgeous, succeeds as a pure content play, and the main advertising element, a somewhat clunky voiceover that talks about "less fuel in for more miles out," seem almost intrusive. Still, the point that things aren't always as they appear—a rule this campaign applies to various qualities of the Honda CR-V 1.6, such as gas mileage—is made in exceptionally eye-opening fashion.

Some commenters have noted similarities to Audi's 7-year-old "Illusions" commercial. They should keep in mind that advertising, like all creative endeavors, often borrows from and reworks what's come before, building on inspiration to create new vision. Yes, the commercials are somewhat alike. Even so, with the Honda spot, you don't get the feeling that you've seen it all before.

CREDITS
Client: Honda
Agency: mcgarrybowen London
Executive Creative Directors: Paul Jordan, Angus MacAdam
Copywriter: Richard Holmes
Art Director: Remco Graham
Planner: Max Kennedy
Agency Producer: Richard Firminger
Production Company: Gorgeous
Director: Chris Palmer
Editor: Paul Watts
Postproduction: The Mill
Colorist: Seamus O'Kane
VFX: Tom Sparks
Audio Post: Parv Thind
Audio Post: Wave
Media Agency: Starcom

Source;

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-real-or-illusion-honda-cr-v-spot-keeps-you-guessing-153307?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=AWK_AdBrand&utm_campaign=Adweek%20Newsletter%20Template%20-%20Advertising%20%26%20Branding%20-%

Honda Allocating More Resources to Non-Traditional Marketing Initiatives

by Edward A. Sanchez of www.automobilemag.com

Most of the headlines about social media usually involve celebrities and their inappropriate or bizarre public or private behavior, but the emergent genre of mass communications has caught the eye of major corporations, and is resulting in reallocation of marketing resources. American Honda has shifted its marketing budget to allocate as much as 30 percent of the overall marketing budget to social media and other non-traditional initiatives, according to Automotive News. American Honda senior vice president of marketing Mike Accavitti said the company needs to take more risks with its marketing strategy, and accepting that some will not be successful.

As much as 30 percent of the company’s U.S. marketing budget has been set aside for “risky” initiatives, with a heavy emphasis in social media. Among some of the manifestations of this news strategy is Acura’s sponsorship of the popular “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” web video series featuring Jerry Seinfeld, which has seen a 40 percent increase in viewership in its second season.

The more traditional initiatives, such as television, digital and print advertising, are expected to achieve the same results with 70 percent of the budget as they achieved previously with the lion’s share of resources. In addition to the reallocation of resources to non-traditional marketing initiatives, Honda has also changed agencies for media buying and advertising. Honda also has an in-house social media department to create new content.

The Honda Civic “Best Yourself” campaign featuring musician Nick Cannon, was created by Muse, an agency specifically oriented toward the African-American community, and features a two-minute minifilm of Cannon driving a Civic, and talking about self-improvement. The campaign with Cannnon resulted in 70 million Twitter impressions and 2.5 million views for the video.


Source;
http://rumors.automobilemag.com/honda-allocating-more-resources-to-non-traditional-marketing-initiatives-251381.html#axzz2iMgvq8pZ

Honda Illusions 2013/4 Honda CRV Diesel Commercial

New Honda Campaign Spurs 'Brand Improv'

My favorite new genre of advertising is what I like to call “Brand Improv,” defined as follows: when brands are forced to think on their feet, in realtime, with no brief, no meetings, no committees, no nothing, except a certain talented someone channeling the brand and improvising messages. And there’s no better example than the new Honda campaign supporting the vacuum built into their Odyssey minivans.

Though the interesting part of the campaign is not the ad, it’s important to see that or the rest of this post will make little sense. Here it is in case you somehow, and impossibly, dodged it:

Moderately funny, nice idea, clearly communicates the fact there’s a vacuum in the car. But, as it turns out, this ad was merely setting the stage for much more interesting marketing.

Honda takes on product brands typically found on Odyssey floors
If you go to Honda’s Twitter page (https://twitter.com/Honda), you’ll see Honda humorously jabbing at the brands that are typically found on the floor of a dirty minivan: Burger King fries, Orville Redenbachers popcorn, Doritos, and many more. Tweets that humorously “warn” these brands that they better stay off the floor…or else the new Odyssey vacuum will suck them up.

Here was the first shot across the bow from Honda’s Twitter feed that set the tone:

Little dropped snacks everywhere, your days are numbered. The Odyssey with available vacuum is here. Whoooooooosh.

But then Honda got a little bolder and took on those floor-brands directly:

Hey @BurgerKing, we’ll be #Satisfried when we’ve vacuumed every one of you off our floors. – Odyssey with available HondaVAC
Now showing in the Honda Odyssey Touring Elite Theater: Attack of the Popcorn-Devouring HondaVAC. Watch out @OrvillePopcorn & @PopSecret.
Mmmmmmmm. The rainbow is tasty @Skittles. Sincerely, The Honda Odyssey Touring Elite with built-in HondaVAC.

Like a monster threatening the lives of any snack daring to fall on the Odyssey floor. Suddenly a decent TV spot becomes much more than just an ad. Now we see Honda was launching a real-world mission to clean up the floors, one snack brand at a time. But even these Tweets from Honda aren’t the most interesting part of the campaign.

The brands on the floor fight back
It’s when the brands that are “called out” by Honda start responding that the real magic happens. It’s “Brand Improv” at its best. While I couldn’t find any direct response on Twitter from BurgerKing (missed opportunity), I did see a couple others accept the challenge. Here are two.

Orville Redenbachers took full advantage with this reply-Tweet:

@Honda The popcorn-devouring HondaVAC is in for a treat when it discovers and eats up lost Orville pieces!

Taco Bell minced no words with this Tweet:

@Honda Your vacuum cleaner sucks. No, really.

Ha! What’s especially great about the Taco Bell Tweet is that fans of both brands piled on. One even kept score as to which brand had the more stinging Tweets. Check out that thread here. It’s well worth the read.

When there’s no time to calculate, we see the authentic brand
When Oreo did its now-famous “You can still dunk in the dark” Tweet during the blackout of the Superbowl, we immediately saw Oreo as more than a cookie, but a personality (a personality that apparently watches football and is pretty tapped into culture for a cookie). That’s the intrinsic value of that particular effort: we like Oreo more for doing it.

But because so few brands are doing such realtime creative, the story about that Tweet was everywhere. And that’s the secondary benefit of Brand Improv, PR value.

Is your brand ready for improv?
This new genre of improvisational advertising is exciting to me as a marketer. It’s the opposite of Apple's AAPL -1.27% “1984,” a carefully considered, well produced, epic piece of communication, but is no less powerful. And the improvisational nature of it will require completely different talent. Agencies might consider looking for improv comedians to helm this new “department” – it’s that different. Heck, new agencies are springing up like Relevant24 designed to do nothing but realtime creative.

But, more important than the talent, to act as naturally as Oreo or Honda or Taco Bell have in social media requires a deep understanding of one’s brand (in order to represent that brand live), a culture of experimentation, and a tolerance for failure. No improv comedian hits the mark every time, and neither will brands. You have to be ok with that reality.

I believe it’s a risk worth taking because the fails will wither on the social vine while the successes will be remembered. And who knows where it will go from here? Maybe other brands will coordinate social media verbal challenges to each other to equal effect. I hope so. It’s just plain fun to watch brands “talk” to each other like this.

So, is your brand ready for a little Brand Improv?

Source;
http://www.forbes.com/sites/willburns/2013/10/03/new-honda-campaign-spurs-brand-improv/

Japan Commericial for the 2014 Honda FIT

2014 Honda Accord Commercial: Bob's Accord

Honda Civic 2013 Nick Cannon #BestYourself Commercial

Sexy Model Ancila Tilia Stars in Best Honda Civic Commercial Ever [Video]

Nice.

GEEK.com: New Honda Hands ad is two minutes of video sorcery

Honda is best known for making and selling reliable, practical automobiles produced in equally practical manufacturing facilities. The company also makes other things, though. For example, motorcycles, robots, and amazing commercials to show off the cool stuff it makes. A few years back Honda won massive praise for the “cog” advert, and now it may have outdone itself with the fabulous Honda Hands commercial.

The two minute spot was debuted online a few days ago, and it’s one of the most magical two minutes of advertising you’ll ever see. It’s basically a static shot of a person playing with miniature versions of Honda’s greatest creations. This clever video starts out with a nut rolling past.

The object morphs into all manner of Honda products in surprising ways. There are dirt bikes, cars, Asimo, jet engines, and even a solar-powered concept car. These are the innovations Honda is most proud of over the last 65 years.

The Honda Hands ad simplifies the technological journey the company has embarked on in the last few decades. Honda has gone from a second fiddle to Toyota, to a respected innovator and manufacturer.

Honda says this ad “celebrates the curiosity of Honda engineers.” I’m willing to grant that — it’s human curiosity that drives science to take the tools we have and build new things. Though, a significant component of this ad is also the desire to make a really cool animation that people will talk about. If your ad is good enough, you don’t have to buy airtime.

Source;
http://www.geek.com/news/new-honda-hands-ad-is-two-minutes-of-video-sorcery-1561208/

Honda: The Centaur Motorcycle Commercial Video

Advertising Agency: DDB, France
Executive Creative Director: Alexandre Hervé
Creative Director: Alexander Kalchev
Copywriters: Alexander Kalchev, Alexis Benbehe, Pierre Mathonat
Art Directors: Alexis Benbehe, Pierre Mathonat
Account Supervisors: Mathieu Roux, Olivier Massanella
Advertiser's Supervisors: Richard Mathiau, Valerie Larousse
Production Company: Crac Director: Alexander Kalchev
First ADs: Antoine Levi, Florent Michel
Producer: Pierre-Yves Bronsart
Music: Clement Tery
DOPs: Benjamin Roux, Romain Alary
Sound Production: THE

Honda’s media buying and planning duties go to MediaVest

American Honda Motors has concluded its Media Review which began in December. MediaVest was selected as the media agency serving both brands, with RPA selected as the creative agency for the Honda automobile brand and Mullen as the creative agency for the Acura brand.  La Agencia de Orci & Asociados will continue to be Honda's Hispanic creative agency.

MediaVest's role as the separate media agency is expected to result in more sophisticated targeting of the media mix, with a significant improvement in media buying efficiency. "Getting smarter about how we communicate was a critical goal of this process and even with the same level of investment we expect to realize more efficient and targeted media plans, which will increase the amount of money we spend on reaching our customers," said  Michael Accavitti, vice president of National Marketing Operations.

According to a statement by Honda the agency assignment, reflect a major change in strategies for Honda and Acura advertising. The new multi-agency structure will place American Honda at the hub of a collaborative team of agencies, with the focus on heightened creativity, greater efficiency and long-term strategic planning. RPA, Mullen and MediaVest together with Muse Communications (African-American targeted creative) and Orci, which retain the multicultural assignments, will report directly to American Honda rather than through a single agency.

"We are creating a new and highly collaborative path forward that will yield outstanding creative and enable us to focus more of our marketing investment on communicating with our customers," said Accavitti. "We are confident that our new team of agencies will create dynamic marketing campaigns that connect and engage consumers with our products and our brands, while achieving an even higher level of efficiency and effectiveness."

Dedicated workspace at Honda Headquarters
Each agency will have dedicated workspace at American Honda headquarters in Torrance, Calif. where agency personnel can better serve the needs of each brand by collaborating together and with the Honda and Acura teams. In addition, Mullen and MediaVest will be opening or expanding dedicated offices in Southern California. RPA, Muse and Orci are headquartered in Southern California.

From the standpoint of creative agencies, the new structure will enable RPA, Mullen, Muse and Orci to maintain a special focus on the unique needs of each brand at a time when both Honda and Acura have strong momentum with a number of all-new products just introduced or soon coming to market. "With Honda and Acura rolling out incredibly strong new products we think each agency will have a lot of good material to take our creative to the next level," said Accavitti.

Honda has a lineup of new or substantially refreshed models, including the just-introduced 2013 Honda Accord and Civic and a lineup of light trucks led by CR-V, America's top-selling SUV, and the Honda Odyssey. In 2014, Honda has announced plans to greatly expand small car sales with an all-new Honda Fit and a new model based on the Urban SUV Compact revealed at the North American International Auto Show in January 2013.

Acura is in the midst of the complete makeover of its product lineup. In 2012, the brand launched two new gateway Acura models with a redesigned RDX, which has since enjoyed 10 consecutive months of record sales, and the new ILX entry-luxury sedan. For 2013, the all-new 2014 RLX flagship sedan went on sale March 15, with an all-new 2014 MDX coming to market by mid-year. Acura has also announced plans for the introduction of the next generation of the Acura NSX supercar in about two years.

Source;

http://www.portada-online.com/2013/03/19/hondas-media-buying-and-planning-duties-go-to-mediavest/