Who: Nissan Canada, with Nissan United (Juniper Park\TBWA’s integrated bespoke agency team) for strategy, creative and media; Slice Films for production (Ozan Biron directing); RodeoFX for post-production; Eggplant for music and sound design.

What: A new campaign that deviates from the automaker’s typical go-to-market approach by focusing on the overall Nissan brand, rather than individual vehicle nameplates. This new “multiverse” approach is being described as the automaker’s first-ever brand campaign out of Canada.

When & Where: The campaign is in market now, running until the fall across TV/OLV, social, out-of-home, digital and cinema.

Why: Alannah David-Clark, Nissan Canada’s senior manager of marketing communications, said the company felt there was an opportunity to focus on the overall brand it introduces new services and technology along with new nameplates.

“[A]s the Nissan brand continues to grow and evolve in Canada, we want consumers to know we are more than just individual nameplates,” said David-Clark. “Nissan represents great products, technology, and innovation across all offerings, which can be felt across the overall consumer experience.  Our goal is to communicate a thrilling experience across all brand touch-points, whether you are behind the wheel, visiting our showrooms or meeting our brand at an event or online.”

Andrew Caie, creative director with Juniper Park\TBWA, said the goal is to recognize Nissan’s history in Canada (it opened its first Canadian office in 1965) while also reminding consumers of the performance excellence that stems from its proud motorsport heritage.

“Through a data-informed creative approach, we took this as an opportunity to create a Nissan multiverse, visually demonstrating the connection between Nissan’s competitive race cars and their production counterparts in a way that feels exciting and celebratory,” said Caie.

How: The 60-second anchor video showcases Nissan’s Sentra, Rogue, all-new Nissan Z (which the company describes as an “attainable dream car”) and the Super GT, contrasting the everyday cars with the motorsport heritage that inspired them.

Set to the 1960’s garage song “Have Love Will Travel,” the ad combines imagery of its road vehicles with those from its motorsports background, including a racing version of a Sentra driven by Nissan Sentra Cup driver Valérie Limoges, and a modified Nissan Rogue Warrior featuring tracks instead of wheels.

“When you take a corner in a Nissan, there’s about a billion miles of motorsport history cornering with you,” says the voiceover that opens the spot. “From the track, to the road, and off the beaten path, the rush isn’t just for race car drivers.”

And we quote: “Nissan has a rich history in motorsport that continues to this day, including competing in the prestigious Super GT Series in Japan, and in Canada with our very own Nissan Sentra Cup. We wanted to shed light on this fact by creating a campaign that demonstrates to Canadians that whether it’s the Nissan you drive every day, or the one that’s racing competitively, every Nissan is a Nissan; they all share the same performance DNA.” — Ken Hearn, director of marketing, Nissan Canada