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Honda digital campaign racks up 70pc of traffic from mobile

SAN FRANCISCO ? Executives from Honda and Quantasy at the ad:tech San Francisco 2014 conference discussed the importance of both paid and earned media in creating compelling mobile campaigns, with an emphasis on the latter.

The ?More than One: How Multiscreen Campaigns Drive Results? session presented a look at how the automaker leveraged long-form video to promote the 2013 Civic with a multiscreen campaign. The campaign included both paid and earned mobile media, but earned media in particular was used as a way to distribute video content into news feeds.

?What we?re finding is that [mobile] ads alone won?t do it,? said Will Campbell, president of Quantasy, Los Angeles.

?When you think about this mobile device, you think about this thing that people are touching 45 times per day ? that is a very personal experience,? he said.

?It?s important that we think about this in a way where we?re at the same time being personal and communal, and I think when you think about things like that, it sort of changes where we think we can intersect with these touch points.?

Cross-platform video
Honda built a two-minute long video around spokesman and actor Nick Cannon to promote the 2013 Civic. The messaging behind the campaign was that millennials desire to be authentic, unique and independent.

To get some extra reach out of the video, Honda created pieces of content with the same messaging across social and mobile platforms. These initiatives included creating 15-second videos on Instagram and Twitter and on Honda?s Web site.

The video also lived on YouTube and was made into online video ads.

The idea behind leveraging this content on these platforms was an extension of the campaign?s message around allowing consumers to interact with the brand in a way that they wanted to.

According to Mr. Campbell, what was unique about Honda?s Best Yourself effort was that the campaign first created a piece of content that was then turned into a 60-second ad.

There were more than 2.4 million total video views, 91 million earned impressions and more than 4,000 conversations around the hashtag #BestYourself.

Engagement on Facebook jumped 532 percent, Twitter increased 280 percent and Instagram grew by 128 percent. 

Additionally, the campaign generated a 98 percent positive sentiment.

Finicky millennnials
Millennials represent 25 percent of the total population, 50 percent of whom will buy a car in the next three years, according to Gina Jorge, head of multicultural marketing at American Honda Motor.

?Having this audience connected to our brand early has real, lasting effects given that the majority of Honda owners are repeat buyers,? Ms. Jorge said.

?A big part of the reason we are so interested and committed to the millennial audience has to do with our past,? she said. ?We?ve had a long-time connection to the 18-29 year-old segment, and as we talk about Civic specifically, it has always embodied a spirit of youthfulness, fun and originality.?

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York