Honda Motor Co. is plugging its vary of merchandise — from bikes to jets — in a serious new marketing campaign that factors to its future, together with investments in electrical automobiles and a longer-term imaginative and prescient for reusable area rockets and avatar robots.
A brand new “Eternally Decided” advert, which comes from agency-of-record RPA, is the second spot in Honda’s “Origin of Willpower” marketing campaign that debuted in October.
Whereas the marketing campaign’s first advert centered on the model’s legacy, the brand new spot is geared towards exhibiting how the corporate is “embarking on new initiatives,” and to “spotlight and tease future merchandise,” stated Senior Supervisor for Honda Advertising and marketing Jessika Laudermilk. Together with reaching its present shopper base, Honda is focusing on Gen Z and millennials “who will not be as acquainted with Honda’s previous,” she stated.
The advert was filmed from the attitude of drivers of varied Honda automobiles, together with the model’s Sort A motorized bicycle, the plane HondaJet Elite S, in addition to forthcoming know-how such because the eVTOL (electrical vertical take-off and touchdown) plane. It even hints at Honda’s area ambitions, with the ultimate scene exhibiting a digital camera shot up in direction of area. The spot is narrated by model consultant and actor John Cena.
The company messaging comes as Honda and different automakers cope with provide shortages that in some instances have lessened the necessity for advertising and marketing pushing new automobiles, provided that demand has exceeded provide.
Whereas Honda launched a product-focused marketing campaign for its HR-V compact crossover in June, “from a advertising and marketing perspective, we’re actually specializing in higher funnel and branding as we all know there’s far more demand than we’ve got to promote in the intervening time,” stated Laudermilk.
The auto business’s provide chain points, which embody semiconductor shortages, are anticipated to final till 2024, in keeping with Automotive Information. This has led to “pent-up demand,” in keeping with consulting agency AlixPartners, as quoted by Automotive Information.
Manufacturing woes contributed to a worldwide car gross sales drop for Honda of 18.3% within the quarter ending June 30.
The marketing campaign’s media purchase consists of NHL, NFL and NCAA programming. The plan consists of buys on Hulu, Roku, Twitch, Amazon, Spotify, Vevo, ESPN/ESPN Deportes, TikTok, Reddit, Snapchat and Canela Media, which caters to U.S. Latinx audiences. Honda can even carry the marketing campaign to Twitch by making a world containing parts of the marketing campaign, though the main points are nonetheless unconfirmed. Honda has maintained a presence on Twitch, together with aiming to achieve non-gamers by creating a life-style channel in March.
By way of spending, the spot “is on par with what Honda has historically spent on a mannequin launch marketing campaign and (what it spent) with ‘Origin of Willpower,’” stated Laudermilk. “That is in all probability a very powerful marketing campaign we’ve got (this yr),” she stated when requested about how the marketing campaign is being prioritized.
The marketing campaign will run till mid-November.
Honda has maintained an plane enterprise and final September introduced its intention to develop reusable rockets to launch satellites in area together with air mobility automobiles and avatar robots, in keeping with Automotive Information. Honda rivals equivalent to Hyundai are additionally exploring the plane area.
Along with its plane and area tech objectives, Honda plans to roll out 30 EVs globally by 2030 and produce 2 million of the automobiles yearly, it introduced in April. Laudermilk confirmed that these plans are on monitor.
On Monday, Honda and South Korean battery maker LG Vitality Answer introduced plans to speculate $4.4 billion to construct lithium ion batteries within the U.S. for Honda and Acura model electrical automobiles.