At a time when vehicle inventory was low, our efforts were focused on creating a larger branded effort aimed at reinforcing Honda as an innovative company with a wide range of products. Our strategy was to create a significant brand moment for Honda that had a lasting impact and set them apart from other automakers in the eyes of customers, dealers, and Honda associates. The path to achieving this included showcasing their most innovative products alongside nods to their future innovations.
The overarching idea for the campaign and the variety of executions was communicating Honda’s spirit of determination, and inspiring our viewers with this determined spirit.
We wanted the work to be relatable, inspirational and shareable, and tailored to each platform. We targeted current owners, potential owners, and future owners, the sweet spot being potential Honda buyers.
The themes of this integrated campaign centered around triumph and perseverance, a powerful way to drive brand opinion and make an emotional connection with audiences. The executions were strongly rooted in Honda history and laddered up to where Honda plans to go in the future. It was also important that the executions were as innovative as the brand, which is why we created the first takeover lens and utilized advanced 3D rendering techniques in the creation of some of our stills.
Our campaign centered around our brand film, titled “Forever Determined.” It took viewers on a first-person journey through time, taking an exciting look back at all the doubts that Honda has overcome, as well as a powerful look forward at the company’s plans for the future of mobility.
We created dynamic animated short videos that each tell a different story of Honda’s illustrious legacy, like their proud racing heritage, and how they became the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer. We called them “Stories of Determination.”
Other elements in the campaign took the form of attention-grabbing and shareable still images that showcased some of Honda’s most iconic vehicles and communicated the company’s determined spirit.
Our interactive lens game on Snapchat lets the user test their own determination by racing against the clock in four legendary Honda vehicles.
This engaging and cohesive campaign successfully communicated the brand’s determined spirit and the successes that resulted from it. It reached our audience over Instagram, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest.
We worked with various multi-talented vendors to bring this campaign to life. We ensured the work felt cohesive across all executions in style, tone and messaging.
We wanted to create content that feels native and sharable on each platform, so we optimized each creative execution and deliverable for each platform’s specific format and interface, and tailored each to the tone and style of each media placement, e.g. inspiring content for Pinterest, a more conversational tone for Reddit, etc.
In our testing and media tracking, all the right metrics moved upwards. The campaign generated over 400 million impressions across YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, Snapchat, Pinterest and TikTok. Overall, the campaign received a lot of positive reaction from consumers organically, across all platforms.
The main broadcast spot of the campaign showed outstanding metrics for branding–93% brand match compared to the 77% norm. Since airing, other Honda markets have requested the spot for their markets, one of the best signs of success for our clients and partners.
Organic postings had above-norm completion rates and in terms of organic responses, the comments were overwhelmingly positive.
Completion rate for digital video executions was 47%.
The Snapchat lens game reached over 6 million unique users on Snapchat, was shared 129,000 times, saved over 12,000 times, and made Honda the first OEM and auto brand to run a First Lens Takeover on the app.
