Nissan Sentra Gets its YouTube On
Brand: Nissan Sentra (Nissan)
Execution: TV, Blog
Target: Young Drivers
Rating: *****
Reviewer: David
Description:
Nissan creates a new TV campaign for the Sentra featuring San Francisco native and photographer’s assistant Mark Horowitz living in his Sentra for a week. The seven spots are each entitled “A short film by Marc Horowitz”. Each is narrated by Mr. Horowitz and features his different experiences during the week. Horowitz adopted the following rules for his Sentra challenge:
I also set a bunch of rules for myself so the project is a little more challenging and has some boundaries. Here they are:
- I must live 7 straight days out of my Sentra. I am free to come and go from the Sentra as I please.
- I must not return to my apartment at any point during the 7 days.
- I must assume my normal day-to-day responsibilities including work and all scheduled client meetings.
- I must personally prepare at least 4 meals within the immediate vicinity of my Sentra.
- I must go on at least one date. Hopefully more.
- I must not let anyone else drive my car for the 7 days.
- I must sleep in a different location each night. Once the location is chosen I must not move from it.
- I must not set foot outside of my car for any reason from 12am to 5am.
- I must host at least 2 social functions in my Sentra. One must be on or after Day 6.
- I must maintain the highest standards of personal hygiene.
The spots bias towards comedy with Marc Horowitz showering in a sprinkler, cooking in a parking lot, going on a date with a girl who asks “Do you live in here?” and setting up an amateur autocross.
What Works:
We were most interested in this series of spots because it appears to have sprung from ethnographic research by Nissan. Adweek reports that the genesis of the campaign was a study of photos of Sentra owners which revealed that many of them were using the cars as rolling closets, carrying sports equipment, gym clothes and food among other things. That insight combined with the explosion of user-generated video on sites like YouTube and MySpace persuaded Jan Thompson, Nissan VP of Marketing to challenge Marc Horowitz to live in a new Sentra for a week and report back about it.
The spots are well executed and walk the tricky line between documentary filmmaking and advertising reasonably well. There is no pretense that the challenge and the spots are intended to do anything other than promote the Nissan Sentra, which helps. The spots are funny and engaging, which helps even more.
Most importantly, though, Nissan has reconceived the ‘product-as-hero’ form of advertising in a fresh new format. Instead of talking about the Sentra’s roominess or describing its bluetooth hands-free dialing, we see Marc Horowitz sleeping in the car and ordering pizza. This strikes us as a much more sensible way of showing the ‘permission to believe’ for the brand proposition than stating claims like “most interior volume in its class’ outright. The conventional approach always sounds to us like a comedian getting up in front of an audience and saying, “I’m really funny – ask my friends.”
The brand positioning here is around the user. Instead of trying to find someone to showcase a user demographic, Marc Horowitz personifies the psychographic profile of the user Nissan wants to embody for the Sentra. And it works. It is very difficult imagining Honda or Toyota following this route with the Civic or the Corolla.
What Doesn’t:
Six agencies including Omnicom Group’s TBWACD, OMD, Tequila, The Vidal Partnership, Edelman and The Designory were involved in this campaign. Given that and the slick production values, effects and professional editing of this spot make us uncomfortable with the tag, “A film by Marc Horowitz.” We do not know what part of the creative and editorial process Marc Horowitz assumed but unless he was the actual director (which is somewhat harder to imagine with the collection of high-priced talent that must have been surrounding him), then this campaign is not a series of independent films by Marc Horowitz. This damages the authenticity of what is otherwise an excellent effort.
We also think the blog is a bit bare for the musings of someone who had a full week to spend in his car (presumably with some of the time spent by WiFi hotspots.) This also raises the spectre of outside authorship, as does the involvement of PR giant Edelman which has been recently outed as the backer of a pro-Wal-Mart blog.
We raise these issues because we feel that when large brands venture into user-created content, transparency is absolutely critical. This advertising blog does not feel that collaboration between an individual and advertising agencies is necessarily bad. But to properly evaluate the product, consumers must understand how much of the work is the individuals and how much is the brands. Numerous relevant questions are left unanswered by this campaign including how Marc Horowitz was chosen, whether he has created independent films before and who exactly was filming him. While these questions would never be answered in the TV spots, we would expect to read more in the blog.
Branding Bottom Line:
Nissan gives us My Life, My Car with a little too much new car smell.
November 6th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
Great write up, and you really nailed it in the "What Doesn’t" section.
I hate these commercials, because I don't believe them. I don't even think that the guy lives in his car. To me "the average viewer", I think the whole this is just some huge corporate sponsed commercial that I could care less about. Some are kinda funny, but they played the hell out of the first one (I watch a lot of sports). After that first push, I decided that I would never buy a Sentra. It's too bad, because I like Nissans and love my Maxima.
Beside, if I really wanted a car I could live it, I'd buy a Jeep.
November 7th, 2006 at 3:21 pm
I tried out for this comercial in SF. The posting said they were looking for an average guy and when I went there it was all actors. Just young fools trying to become famous. I was about to have my first child and they said they wanted a single guy. So basically they hire a fool to sell a car that no average fool can afford. It was uncomfortable seeing a bunch of so called “average” guys all trying to act cool around one another for the sake of their egos. I wish I wouldve never done it in the first place now but the truth needs to be heard, Its all a sham, phony, fake, unrealistic. This is not a short film in any way but another attempt for advertisers to leak their deceptive ways into todays youth. I have no respect for corporations trying to make things look different that they are. There was no artisitic integrity involved, if I ever see that guy on tv again I think I’ll puke,
November 9th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
Blackjack Expert & David,
Yes, this is the crux of the problem with this spot – the corporate overtones. I think the commercial is very well produced and engaging but the slickness interferes with its authenticity. It would have been better if they had given Horowitz a handy-cam and set him loose for a week. The way they've handled it the spot feels overproduced and the blog underwritten.
David Vinjamuri
November 12th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
The concept behind all of these ads is completely stupid, – they're not even mildly amusing, and Marc Horowitz is a totally obnoxious and annoying jerk-off. There is absolutely NOTHING about these commercials that would ever prompt me to consider buying a Sentra. If anything, these ads have had the opposite effect on me.
November 21st, 2006 at 10:22 am
They were not air'd in sequence here, so I found them confusing and not effective. Appears to me the goal was to find someone who looks like Napoleon Dynamite but didn't want to have to pay for the actual actor.
December 13th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
NBL and AORJ Jobs Creation
Initiative Endorsed by Groups
The National Business League (NBL) and the American Organization for Restoring Jobs (AORJ) met with enthusiastic response by the audience attending a jobs creation briefing today when they said “enough is enough, it is time to stop the stealing from school children’s education by the Japanese automobile companies in Mississippi which will only pay one third the ad valorem taxes due the schools.â€
The AORJ representative reported that the Japanese manufacturers used this tactic as one ploy for the US taxpayers subsidizing not only the Japanese automakers directly but also their extensive auto suppliers network.
The NBL and AORJ claimed in effect the children subsidized the workers jobs. Both the NBL and the AORJ are concerned by the rise in crime in the inner cities caused by the lack of jobs.
Though the Japanese companies claim a certain employment figure and Washington political clout, they rely on the generous tax abatements for the Japanese companies. These processes helped Nissan rely on 74 percent of their worldwide profits coming from the US, Toyota 60 percent of their profits and Honda 70 percent of their profits from the US. In addition, the Japanese government keeps a weakened yen to subsidize the Japanese companies which helps hollow out the American auto industry which is now at a 25 year low. In effect, the Japanese companies and their supply network are helped by US tax abatements and Japanese yen to be profitable and take jobs from Americans and the American auto industry.
In addition Nissan asked the state of Mississippi to set aside 75 percent of the HUD federal funds for their exclusive use for two years which was again taking Americans taxpayer money and hollowing out our American automakers which is a national defense industry for America.
The organization cited a statement by private global wealth management consultant SYNDIKOS which cited a September 2007 Federal Reserve report stating "the productivity growth in foreign nations will make it increasingly difficult for the US to compete in the global arena." SYNDIKOS strategist, Mr. Nicholas Hugo, believes the US economy may be losing in excess of 30,000 to 40,000 jobs per month. Hugo stated that the actual number of automotive industry jobs lost to foreign nations may be at a greater percentage than the overall economic job loses to foreign nations because the government's present data measuring methodology is antiquated and inadequate.
Stating it is time to turn this whole issue around, the NBL and AORJ asked that Congressional hearings be held in Congress on this issue. The audience was asked to join them.
This entire presentation has been about jobs. Before Congress, at the moment, is a bill that will dramatically affect the automobile industry in America—more specifically the automobile workers in America…and this is the CAFÉ bill.
On one hand the Congress desires to address the environmental issues. And with the other hand Congress is increasing the taxes the worker pay. And any time you increase taxes, you will lose jobs.
This entire presentation has been about jobs. And Congress has not passed a single jobs creation bill this session, yet it is willing to eliminate jobs.
It is one thing for Congress to eliminate jobs by increasing taxes, but it is a new phenomenon in America when a corporation can, by its actions, its perfidy, eliminate jobs by increasing taxes. Here is the explanation:
According to the Washington Post, General Motors, Ford, Toyota and the UAW are against the CAFÉ jobs elimination bill – and Nissan is for it. And Nissan is, in the Washington Post article, proclaiming itself to be an “eco-friendly†company. This is hypocrisy – it is false and misleading. Did you know that Nissan is, in the State of Mississippi, not obliged to comply with any – ANY – state or federal environmental laws?
The State of Mississippi – the workers of Mississippi – indemnify Nissan. According to the agreement between Mississippi and Nissan, Nissan has NO obligation – NO need – to comply with any environmental law because if Nissan violates ANY environmental law – those who have jobs in Mississippi will pay for the violations. In other words, Nissan has NO requirement to be a good corporate citizen. Therefore, Nissan is NOT eco-friendly; it is instead transferring its corporate citizenship obligation to the wallets of the workers of Mississippi.
Where do you think Mississippi gets its money from? It gets its money from the workers of Mississippi. If Nissan violates the environmental laws, what we have here is Nissan taxing the workers of Mississippi and America.
If Congress truly wanted to create jobs, it would investigate Nissan and not pass any bill that increases taxes and eliminates jobs. Nissan has drawn the light of day on itself and deserves total and complete public scrutiny. Nissan has consistently misrepresented itself to the workers of America and we need to consider the boycotting of all Nissan automobiles. Corporations, like workers, need to be good citizens and accountable for all their actions.
And good citizenship by Congress is best demonstrated by creating jobs, jobs, jobs –and good citizenship by Congress can be demonstrated by not allowing corporations such as Nissan to tax the workers of America.
The Japanese car companies are foreign companies doing business in the U.S. and working with the Japanese government with weakened yen trades to make them more profitable. This economic war makes the remark "Remember Pearl Harbor" appropriate for the times. We need a hearing on these issues and the effect of out-sourcing and the resultant loss of jobs. We need hearings to help American workers and our automobile companies.
April 12th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
nissan note…
The first gen Murano enjoyed sales growth over its five year life span. The only real complaint about that model was the so- called“ rubberband†effect of Murano’ s CVT. CVTs enjoy variable gear ratios suited to whatever the current driving situa…