Nissan is mixing road trips, cost saving approaches and filming experience with the launch of its new initiative ‘My Versa Road Trip,’ an extension of the car brand’s ongoing campaign ‘Most _____ per dollar,’ launched last month. Starting on September 20, the new project dedicated to the Versa Sedan with the most legroom, headroom, trunk room and technology per dollar than any other car in America, will run in three phases and get people going, literally. The action starts on the dedicated MyVersaRoadTrip.com website and later it will continue in the real world—the auto brand is inviting social-savvy consumers to create their routes and film driving experiences in late fall.
Photo: The front page of My Versa Road Trip website
“While highly social, target Versa buyers in their mid-to-late twenties often are juggling new time commitments and financial priorities. This makes staying connected with friends easier online, so the ‘My Versa Road Trip’ campaign gives them opportunity to engage online for potential chance to reconnect in person offline,” shared Jon Brancheau, vice president, Marketing, Nissan North America, Inc.
On the Facebook Connect enabled website, one can choose the route by adding locations, select a soundtrack and invite three friends, who will accompany him or her in the driving experience. At the first phase, the trip is virtual, but it can be turned real—for this, a contestant is asked to write a short explanation in 104 characters or less (with 104 cubic feet of space, the Versa has the most space per dollar of any car in America, and 104 characters is quite enough for the explanation text as well) to convince Nissan that his or her trip will become something really huge.
The submissions are accepted through October 19, and on November 14 the brand will announce six winners who together with their friends will hit the road in a 2012 Versa Sedan (their prize), which will be equipped with stop-motion cameras inside and out to record the 4 days/3 nights trips. Since this project has a big social media component, the selected teams will be sharing their emotions and experiences online by submitting trips, tweets, photos and other content to their feeds. The footage will be then used to create films to be screened at an online film festival in January 2012—they will be watched and rated by the community, the best of the films will be named the Road Trip Video.
The new Nissan’s initiative is quite similar to activities of other car brands including Citroën and Renault, but surprisingly enough unlike its previous projects doesn’t have any ecological component.