Nissan Canada has launched a website showcasing consumers’ decision-making skills by changing reality.
In conjunction with the automaker’s new “Good Decision” ad campaign, webcam-enabled visitors to NissanGoodDecision.com are matched with a Nissan car through an emerging form of media interactivity.
After answering five questions about their lifestyle, personal tastes and car budget, visitors are given a Nissan-branded symbol to print out, and their webcam is activated.
The user then holds the page in front of the webcam and a three-dimensional image of a recommended Nissan car appears to spring from the paper on screen.
The car is shown in a setting determined by the user’s questionnaire—outdoorsy types will see a mountain range, urbanites a city street—along with price and finance options.
The effect is called augmented reality. It is achieved using software that imposes computer effects and images over real-time video.
NissanGoodDecision.com also invites visitors to share the experience with friends through social media, like Facebook and Twitter.
The project was brought to Nissan by its agency of record, TBWAToronto, which chose this approach to reach web-savvy consumers.
“What we’re trying to do is make the process of making good decisions come to life,” said Matt Hassell, creative director at TBWA. “We always want to have experiential marketing going on, and the way to do that is to have [consumers] make decisions for a payoff.
“In this case, because it’s directed at people further down in the purchasing funnel, they might be willing to go through the five-question survey to have the experience presented in a new way.”
The site went live yesterday afternoon as part of a “soft launch,” so while consumers can access it if they know the URL, no marketing materials have been produced to drive traffic to it.
Eventually, traffic will be steered from Nissan.ca and through its current banner ad campaign.
Good Decision’s television executions compare the “good decision” of buying a Nissan with humorous “bad decisions,” such as eating food found in a couch, or picking up a hitchhiker with a chain saw.
