How Acura drives awareness with a new hit web series
The excessive-efficiency Integra Form S, share of Acura’s bestselling Integra lineup, is an very good bigger hit online than in sellers’ showrooms. It’s a celebrity of Acura’s wildly in kind interesting web series, “Chiaki’s Toddle,” now in its 2nd season.
As of June, the first season (four episodes that ran in 2022) has been viewed nearly 280 million events. It has some distance exceeded expectations in connecting with youthful top rate vehicle traders, lifting consideration metrics and boosting sales. That season became additionally awarded a Gold Effie and named a Huge Effie Contender on the U.S. Effie Awards.
The campaign became created in partnership with ingenious agency MullenLowe and London’s The Line animation studio.
Extending the series to a 2nd season
This spring, the 2nd season of “Chiaki’s Toddle” launched in narrate to execute on the momentum and add to the saga established in Season One. Produced in a slick anime kind, with an normal rock theme song, the designate follows a young girl searching for out to fulfill her father’s legacy as a legendary auto racer. With every episode, the viewers learns extra about Chiaki’s special abilities and in regards to the prominence of her father, who passed away sooner than the yarn started.
Anime and vehicle fans can peek the present episodes on YouTube. The series is additionally promoted on digital vehicle and standard of living properties, social media, streaming and exterior in key U.S. markets.
Assembling a personalized web series to entice a brand current viewers
The Acura marketing team all shared a deepest interest in Jap-kind anime movies. They additionally seen that anime became experiencing a resurgence, especially amongst youthful shoppers. Increasing an anime series round Acura seemed as if it will per chance seemingly seemingly seemingly be a methodology to bring in current clients, even supposing no one expected “Chiaki’s Toddle” to develop to be as critical because it did.
“We went into this truly now not vibrant what to await, but we had been mammoth anime fans and we went into it with a methodology,” mentioned Meliza Humphrey, senior manager of Acura Marketing. “We didn’t know what the response became going to be, but our technique became that anime became coming support into pop custom — it became a critical ingredient. We knew within the past we’d completed campaigns resonating successfully with vehicle custom and the Acura custom.”
The series involves like a flash-paced speed sequences moreover scenes where the characters work on cars within the storage to prepare for future races. As a result, casual anime fans and vehicle enthusiasts alike procure something to latch onto, with loads of opportunities for Acura to weave the Form S into the yarn.
“We’re a Jap price and we’re a efficiency price,” mentioned Humphrey. “We wished to consist of the Form S fashions and divulge an authentic yarn to our fans. So we started from there.”
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Discovering and collaborating the correct clients with lisp material
“Chiaki’s Toddle” is adapted for social buzz. That’s the result of Acura’s marketing team’s many tips for making episodes valuable to the vehicle maker’s viewers and vehicle enthusiasts extra broadly.
“While you pause in [the series character Uncle] Noboru’s storage, the total historical aspects about racing, garages, and the Acura custom — a vehicle fanatic would know the total diminutive nuggets and Easter eggs we do in there,” mentioned Humphrey. “So it’s an exact collaboration between us, MullenLowe and The Line to produce all these items come to lifestyles.”
She added, “We know who we’re making an are attempting to entice to the logo and as soon as we obtain a campaign, who that’s going to resonate with. We additionally non-public our media companions who procure the correct digital companions and enact the focusing on for us to attain that viewers.”
Furthermore, Acura uses a social listening tool and has a social analytics accomplice taking part the correct clients on social.
Email and the purchaser’s digital roam
“We would like to search at views but additionally other folks which would possibly per chance seemingly seemingly be sharing, as an extension of engagement,” mentioned Humphrey. “The final aim is to pressure other folks to our websites so that they are going to learn extra.”
On the websites, clients can execute their comprise Integra nearly about and fasten with local sellers to produce a buy or reserve a brand current model if it isn’t yet on hand.
“Now we non-public satisfaction in how we prepare our customer database and the method engaging we possess the records,” Humphrey defined. “Inner the database, we had been in a region to title clients and ship them an e mail campaign speaking about how Form S became coming, and teased within the anime series.”
Reside events and out-of-house
To execute buzz round Integra Form S cars and the 2nd season of “Chiaki’s Toddle,” Acura do in a true-lifestyles recreation of Uncle Noboru’s storage, featured within the series, on the Acura Huge Prix of Long Sea drag match within the spring.
Outdoors commercials in pick markets additionally had been mature to signal to fans that one other season became underway. Acura made a critical splash in Cases Square with a Season 2 ad in 3D.
“Out-of-house became one other critical extension for the campaign,” mentioned Humphrey. “Our out-of-house became truly positioned strategically in LA, Unique York’s Cases Square and additionally in Miami right by approach to the F1 season.”
In this methodology, motorsports and Acura fans can peek an taking part series originate to steal a brand current lifestyles within the bodily world round them. No plans had been made good yet for where the series goes subsequent.
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