Controversial Cravings for Honda

Previously, the Honda CR-V was purchased and loved for its solid, practical functionality, but it lacked excitement. Realizing that this crossover utility vehicle category skews more female and the vehicles were not being used for off roading, Honda focused on combining contemporary styling and functionality. The advertising campaign appeals to consumers on an emotional as well as rational level by emphasizing the all-new styling and demonstrating that practical can also be desirous.
 
The crave-themed campaign targets consumers' emotions by juxtaposing popular cravings like chocolate, ice cream and popcorn with the all-new CR-V's stylish features.

To capture the attention of internet devotees, the Crave marketing site features user-generated content and invites visitors to submit things that they crave in the form of a photo with a description. Crave submitters can also add tags to their submissions (such as "chocolate"). Leveraging the tagging concept, search marketing drives traffic from crave-related searches back to the CR-V CRAVE site. A vehicle-specific search campaign also targets 2007 CR-V searchers.
-- Fern Shlauter, interactive management supervisor, RPA.

The result is a pleasing palette of images that entices visitors to mouse-over for more details on each individually uploaded craving. These range from sports teams to pets to food and feature a little description of why each craving is so important to the craver. I'm somewhat surprised at the relative lack of self-promotion here, as Honda's site seems like a pretty high-profile venue for people to hawk their own products or services (I guess I shouldn't give people any ideas). All in all, this is a nice venue for user-generated content, and I think it does a good job reinforcing Honda's audience-embracing persona.
-- Jason Scheidt, director of marketing, EyeWonder, Inc.

Not a week has gone by this year without a panel discussion or column written about user-generated content. I have the utmost respect for brands and their agencies that are willing to experiment with new tactics in their marketing efforts. However, not unlike the many UGC sites like YouTube and Sharkle, Honda's "Crave" site is full of mostly forgettable, if not outright useless, submissions that deliver negligible brand value or actionable information.

Should you crave a new Honda CR-V? Sure you should. My hat is off to the actual Honda CR-V site, which allows you to custom build and price the CR-V configuration of your choice and print out a PDF brochure or order a glossy one by mail. The site also walks you through the "environmentology" of the CR-V (which I think is a spectacular branding campaign of its own) and offers tons of glamour shots of the car. One of the more unique, and forthright, elements of the CR-V site allows a user to compare the CR-V to similar models from other manufacturers, feature by feature, with flattering photos and complete specs for all vehicles.

I'm a big fan of usergenerated content to support a brand. A happy customer is your best advertisement, spokesperson and viral campaign all wrapped up into one. But pictures of pizza, ice cream, a favorite team's logo -- all submitted by user's who crave them -- does little to make me crave anything from Honda, other than the commercials for the Honda Element with Gil the Crab and his other animal friends.

Personally, there are elements of user-generated content that raise new legal issues surrounding copyrights, fair use and permissions. I'm extremely curious how some of the other brands -- particularly the sports' teams -- feel about having their logos included as part of a branding campaign for Honda.  
-- Corey Kronengold, senior marketing manager, 121 Media.