Who: Nissan and Juniper Park\TBWA’s Nissan United (strategy, creative, and media), with Soft Citizen for production (directed by Leo Zuckerman), JP\TBWA’s Bolt Content for editing and TA2 for sound.
What: A new data-driven advertising and digital content campaign for the 2021 Rogue crossover.
When & Where: The broadcast component launched during the Billboard Music Awards, but digital content continues to run across a wide range of channels (more on media below).
Why: Nissan wanted to stand out in the highly competitive crossover market with a strong statement about the modern definition of family (especially with younger consumers), while connecting more efficiently with its targets through a data-driven campaign.
“To launch a complete refresh of Nissan’s best-selling model in the largest automotive segment in Canada, we knew that we needed an ambitious digital-first strategy to match,” said Nissan Canada’s director of marketing Adam Paterson in a release. “With Juniper Park\TBWA, we are positioning the Rogue as the perfectly redesigned SUV for the redefined family. In the same way that Canadian families are also challenging conventions, the all-new Rogue is boldly defying automotive conventions in its segment.”
How (I): First, Nissan wanted to broaden the definition of “family.” The Rogue isn’t just for traditional families consisting of mom, dad and the kids. Nissan wants the Rogue to be for your “fam”—the people close to you with whom you enjoy meaningful experiences. In the advertising, your “fam” could be the people you go to dog yoga with, the people you scuba dive with or the people you knit with. Juniper Park\TBWA calls this the “Canadian cultural truth” at the heart of the campaign.
How (II): The 60-second TV ad shows some of the different kinds of families, but the agency used the production to create 156 pieces of digital video content to send the most relevant message to highly targeted consumers at different stages of their car buying journey (see one of the six-second spots under the :60 below).
The Nissan United agency team used data obtained through Nissan and Omnicom’s Omni data platform to identify consumer interests, develop target audiences and guide media spend across channels. “The team also worked with Google to develop a very strategic approach to ad delivery,” said Adam Lang, managing director of Nissan United. The goal was to optimize the content for each target audience, “priming them for more information with each ad delivery.
“The kinds of customers being targeted in this campaign include future, near, and in-market audiences,” explained Lang. For “future market” consumers, the objective is about generating positive awareness of the Rogue. “For near market, the goal was to fulfill interests [and] needs (features and benefits) of those starting to shop for a CUV by targeting them through online behaviours that show a predisposition to actively shop soon.”
For those who are actively shopping and have the Rogue on their list “the focus is more on the vehicle itself, and reasons to buy now,” said Lang.
Media: The agency completed a number of deals with different digital platforms including DAZN (“to capture live sports audiences while bars are closed”), Pinterest and Parent Life, complemented by big digital buys on platforms like The Weather Network, autotrader.ca, Kijiji Auto, Verizon Media and Spotify.
