Honda Civic Gets off the Grid

Earlier this year, Honda Civic proved that it’s good for everyone, even the most weird creatures and personalities (including zombies and woodsmen) as part of the ‘To Each Their Own’ campaign. Now, the auto brand is targeting digital savvy consumers with the interactive ‘Off the Grid’ film which takes viewers into a 360 degree photographed environment and offers them to explore the virtual space following the Google Street View-like red line (which works almost like a white rabbit).

The webfilm, which was created for Honda by Wieden+Kennedy, the Partizan production company and director Michael Geoghegan to name a few, is all about exploring the most breath-taking places around the globe. The journey, which starts when a user agrees to leave a virtual art gallery through a hole in the wall, continues in a glacial ice cave, an underwater reef art museum, a canyon or among old Las Vegas neon signage. One can get the 360 degrees view by turning the camera and discover every element of the bespoke interiors. No streets, no limits—exotic or just rarely visited places, the red arrow and you.

The Civic design team threw out what they knew and started afresh, exploring every path. Off the Grid reflects how rewarding a journey into the unknown can be. The experience takes users to places they’d never get a chance to see otherwise, or lets them experience familiar locations in an underwater art museum entirely new way,” writes the Wieden + Kennedy agency on the work in its blog. The interactive experience was launched on December 19 and can be viewed at www.youtube.com/hondacivicUK—those who want to learn more about the locations, can visit www.hondaoffthegriduk.posterous.com.

The ‘Off the Grid’ piece, which is part of the marketing campaign entitled ‘The Great Unknown’ running across Europe, follows the recently launched ‘Happy Dog’ interactive ad and the hilarious HTML5 game ‘The Experiment,’ also devised by Wieden+Kennedy and highlighting the improvements and enhancements of the Civic model. In early 2012, the Honda Civic adverts will air on TV, continuing the marketing effort. Venture into the unknown!