"What if you could find that sweet spot? Where everything is just the way you want?".
Honda is pitching their new 2016 HR-V Crossover as a new type of car category, specifically for urbanites in their mid-20s. Honda Senior-VP/General Manager Jeff Conrad has said: "The vehicles in 'Great Thinking Inside' are iconic Honda models that demonstrate our evolution of thinking, while 'Give and Take' illustrates our dedication to innovations, and we're proud to continue this track record with the all-new HR-V”. The ads are directed by by Smith & Foulkes, the Nexus duo who recieved a 2009 Oscar nomination for their 3D animated short ‘This Way Up’, who have a long established history working on Honda ads through Wieden+Kennedy London.
Supporting the two spots are print and digital features, emphasising the perfect fit angle of the campaign
Apart from the obvious demographic grab, the first advert ‘Give and Take’ works on a basic level. It gets across that the new 2016 Honda HR-V is all about a tailored experience that gets everything right. As much as it kind of looks like some MacBook Photobooth fun, the message comes across that it’s about the person in the car, the individual you are. In fact, the actual product takes a back seat (accidental pun) until the end. Instead, the hypnotic face-pullers create a new look with their malleable skin. There’s a touch of quirky humour, which tries a little too hard to jaunty its way into the hearts of that mid-20s demographic. In fact, they're hitting that Generation Y market hard. The freaky, stretching faces are supposedly a representation of Millennials, but boy are they fussy beings. You might think they’re more likely to want to spend small amounts of cash on Aeropress Coffee and quinoa burgers than invest in a gas-guzzling car. But are they? As reported by AutoExpress, this year has seen surge after surge in UK car sales.
As RPA ECD Jason Sperling noted, "With cars, you usually have to give something up in order to get something good. The new Honda HRV is this 'sweet spot' of cars – it combines the best features of a lot of different cars without a bunch of compromise. The faces are fun, simple representation of 'giving something up in order to get something good,' and the HR-V comes to show what happens when someone gets something just right."
But if product is what you're after, then their other spot ‘Great Thinking Inside’ puts the car back at the forefront of the ad. A series of classic vehicles intersect with one another, before revealing the new crossover, as Sammy Davis Jrs classic ‘Gonna Build A Mountain’ plays over the top. This Russian-doll effect manages to evoke the companies past and the future combining into that perfect car. This feels like it's aimed at a slightly different audience, one that knows cars and care less about their individual representation in (what is always going to be essentially be) a mass-produced product.
And of course, if one’s really nostalgic for a Honda ad, there’s only one that can win out. The Cog, for the Honda Accord. Always worth two minutes of your time:
