See the "Radio Player" online ad

See the "Break Dance" online ad

Client: Nissan
Creative Agency: TEQUILA\ Los Angeles

To align the redesigned 2007 Sentra with young urbanites and their 24/7 lifestyles, Nissan found Marc. Marc's goal was to live in his car for seven straight days as normally as possible while being filmed. He showered in public bathrooms, slept in his backseat, went on a date and even entertained friends. There was the occasional run-in with meter maids, and a few midnight pranks by friends. But the footage captured Marc's lifestyle and the vehicle that complements it perfectly. The lengthy raw footage was cut into numerous television spots and short films for blogs. For more on the experience, visit Marc's blog.

"Radio Player" online ad: Nissan also wanted to develop an online ad to promote the all-new Sentra, and create a community around the Sentra through music. TEQUILA\ partnered with talented musicians that resonate with the target: cool, interesting, hip, fun. The in-unit banner showcases the available MP3 input jack, and features four playlists full of music that Marc found during his "7 Days in a Sentra." The banner allows users to listen to songs and actually download full songs directly to their desktop. It also contains "send to a friend" functionality, so great songs can be shared virally.

"Break Dance" online ad: Finally, the unique, rich media "Break Dance" online ad began running on lifestyle sites to support Sentra's launch in October 2006. It extends the national campaign featuring Marc Horowitz, and allows users to create their own dance moves within the unit. Users select from three beats and choreograph dance sequences, which can then be shared with friends. "Break Dance" targets the Sentra consumer with a youthful, playful attitude.
-- TEQUILA\ Los Angeles

This campaign is an ambitious venture into integrated marketing to a younger audience. The concept is simple: that the Sentra is a car so well equipped, you could live out of it. Simple, straightforward, easy to understand and well voiced to a target that likely spends a lot of their time using their car as a conduit for their lives.

What is refreshing is that all media touch-points drive toward the microsite. That makes plenty of sense. The rich media was robust and fun to play with, but lacked a compelling hook to get me interested. The spots were forgettable, but served to pique curiosity and drive traffic to the site. I hoped the blog would be great, but I found it to be a bit confusing-- on one hand, it's clearly a Nissan branded site, and on the other, it was an amateur-looking blog. In the effort to make the blog feel handcrafted, it became frustrating to piece together. The target audience is busy (they live out of their cars, remember?) and it takes something really hilarious to bring them back for more. Unfortunately, the videos were only mildly amusing, but not hilarious enough to truly go viral. The highlight of the blog was Horowitz's writing, which conveyed the most character of the whole campaign.
-- Dave Clark, interactive creative director, Draft FCB

Nissan's got a problem: how do you make a Sentra cool to cynical "young urbans" who crave authenticity? Let's see…you could use blogs, vlogs, user-generated content, webisodes, shared playlists, MySpace or maybe something viral people can share with a friend. Or you might want to try it all, which was Nissan's approach with "Seven Days in a Sentra."  This campaign is nothing if not ambitious in its scope and use of non-traditional media.

The campaign centers around Nissan hiring Marc Horowitz, a 30-year-old comic, to live for a week in a new Sentra. He documented the experience with words, art and video and shared these on a blog.

There were a few really great moments here; spontaneous ones where Marc's personality shines through. Moments where we get to know and like Marc as a genuine person -- like the "Miracle of Mr. Seatbelt" video where Marc discovers if he attaches googly eyes to his seatbelt mount it transforms into a loveable muppet-esque character -- and the Sentra's image benefits by association. I also really liked the bit about the how the Cambodian tradition of having public restroom masseuses probably wouldn't fly in the U.S.

The problem was these genuine moments were exceptions. For the majority of entries it felt like Nissan was trying to exercise way too much control-- which is fine: a brand has every right to exert control over its marketing. What isn't fine is doing it in this context. If you are trying to reach a cynical audience, it is not a great idea to present them with user-generated content that feels like it is working from corporate talking points. Nissan has the right idea-- it just needs to trust its consumers and give up a little control.
-- Patrick Barrett, senior interaction designer, Bazaarvoice