Try to imagine a world
without cars or any automotive transport. It is a bit hard isn’t it? The automobile
industry is one of the world’s most significant economic sectors by revenue and
it plays very important role in people everyday lives.
PR in this industry is
particularly vital. The most interesting thing about it is the creative
campaigns and strategies it manages to use in order to attract more clients,
raise awareness and to create a buzz about their new products.
An interesting example is
that of Honda. Yes, it is not the best car industry manufacturer in the world
and people probably won’t see Honda’s car models in movies like James Bond, but
it can surprise public with interesting PR campaigns.
Honda manages to do that by
using social media means. A good example is Honda’s Vine campaign. In July,
2013 to promote company’s Summer Clearance Sales Event, Honda had launched a
campaign that combined both, Vine and Twitter social media platforms. It
accomplished doing so by engaging with Twitter users by utilising real- time
Vine videos. The key here was to encourage users to buy a new car on sale. So
here is what Honda did. It responded
with live Vine videos to tweets with the #wantnewcar hashtag.
"If a
user mentions needing a new car to pick up a pizza, that Vine video response
may feature a Honda dealer offering a great deal … with a mouth full of
pepperoni," Susie Rossick, a senior manager at Honda, said in a statement.
Now, how awesome is that?!
This Campaign provided a new
and unique way to engage with public by using social media. As a result, it was
very successful! Let’s have a look into campaign from the perspective of social
media manager. The average tweet
engagement rate almost tripled in the first and second day of the campaign,
increasing from average 0, 0130% to 0, 0400%. Moreover during the first day of
the campaign Honda have received 1020 new followers and nearly 10, 000
mentions.
The journey of looking into
Honda’s creative PR doesn’t end here. Next example to look at is Honda’s
Project Drive In.
Everybody loves cars and
everybody loves movies. When you combine these two things together, here is
what you get: drive in movie theatres! They are popular in America and it plays
an important role in a country’s history. However, since many theatres still
use 35-milimeter film, which is phased out in the movie industry, many drive-in
theatres are in jeopardy of closure. Here is where Honda steps in. It sponsors
Drive In Project in order to save as many drive-ins as possible. So far there
have been $55,865 raised, 44343 pledges made that people will visit a drive-in
theatre and 9 drive-ins saved!
The tricky thing about this
campaign is that, by sponsoring Project Drive In, Honda has raised the
awareness about its brand. The campaign used social media platforms like
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumbler and YouTube. By sponsoring this project
Honda is also advertising its name and most importantly improving and creating
a positive reputation.
All in all Honda is a good
example of how automobile industry is using its tricky and unusual ways in PR
and increasing awareness about its brand. Go Honda!
By Gabriele Povilaityte