Brand: Honda

Agency: RPA

Sample coverage: Salon, The New York Times, Advertising Age (subscription required)

Campaign: If an award-winning director made three short films that just happened to include passing reference to Honda, the result would likely be the "Dream the Impossible" campaign, which asked consumers to join the automaker in an exploration of themes that reflect the brand's core values. One video, which touched upon the company's mission of transportation, speculated on what a car brand might mean in the year 2088. Another video, which highlighted Honda's passion for innovation, took the unusual tact of probing the role of failure in achieving technological breakthroughs.

What set it apart: While a number of car brands have dabbled in short films (most notably BMW), few have taken the bold step of making an earnest documentary that barely features the brand name at all. But that's exactly what J Barbush, RPA's VP and associate creative director, wanted to achieve with "Dream the Impossible."

"We liked the feel of the documentary," Barbush says. "It allowed for a very soft message, which was important because we didn't want this campaign to be about Honda, we wanted it to be about the philosophy of Honda."

According to Barbush, the focus on Honda's philosophy -- and how it relates to stories of regular people -- helped get bloggers and reporters writing not just about Honda the company, but about Honda the brand and, more importantly, what it meant.

"It wasn't just about presenting feel-good stories," Barbush explains. "People responded the most to the film about failure, and that makes sense because that's part of reality."

Advice: While Honda's bold creative (notably its decision to confront failure) may not be palatable for every brand, Barbush does believe that one takeaway all marketers can use has to do with the vast size and scope of the web. According to Barbush, one of the keys to the campaign was that Honda didn't try to keep the conversation confined to its site.

"We used the full web; it's a big place," Barbush says. "For this campaign, we pushed comments to YouTube because they just didn't fit on our site. Marketers shouldn't be afraid to take people away from the destination. That may mean you're soft on metrics, but you need to look at the bigger picture to see where people are going and engage them there."