Car manufacturers test video-sharing networks

Graeme Parton +

Two of the world’s biggest motoring brands, Honda and Nissan, have added themselves to the growing list of companies turning to online visual content apps to boost awareness.

The Japanese firms have joined Mercedes and Lexus in their attempts to capitalise on the popularity of short video-sharing programs. Nissan is using the newly updated Instagram app to create 15-second clips promoting its newest vehicle, the Versa Note. It has also tapped into the hype around Vine by using the tool to create six-second videos as well.

According to Nissan’s head of social media and interactive marketing in the U.S., the car has been designed with the younger driver in mind. Erich Marx said:

“[We are looking to reach] young, active Millennials who live life at the spur of the moment through their phone.”

Vine and Instagram certainly fit in well with the audience Nissan is targeting. As well as the company creating short videos itself, it has used its website to provide consumers with printable materials that can be used to create models of the new car. Nissan is hoping users will be sufficiently inspired by the models to produce some compelling content for themselves, further increasing the hype around the vehicle’s release.

Marx went on to talk about his company’s decision to use both Vine and Instagram instead of picking a single platform. He said:

“I love the fact that this is a bit of a real world lab experiment about which new social media platform is best.

“Frankly, I think it’s a bigger challenge making 15 seconds of watchable content [on Instagram] than six seconds of compelling content [on Vine]”

Honda, however, has chosen to stick with Vine in its attempts to boost awareness around its yearly summer clearance in the U.S. As part of the campaign, the company published live, personalised Vine clips using the Twitter hashtag #wantnewcar. The topic was then mentioned 6,895 times by 5,617 Twitter users – providing an estimated 14.8 million impressions in the space of just a few days. According to Honda, the company’s name alone was met with more than 145 million impressions from July 14-15.