Civic Nation tells its million stories

Honda Canada Inc. has a million stories to tell about its Civic model, and they’re at the heart of the Japanese automaker’s new national television and online ad campaign.

The effort, developed by Honda’s Canadian agency Grip Ltd., includes a series of television spots, some of which were shot as testimonials featuring workers from the automaker’s Alliston, Ont. plant.

Each has a story to tell. For instance, Tom has been working at the plant for 18 years and explains how the Honda Civic is fuel efficient, reliable and safe, which is what consumers are looking for in a car today.

In another spot, Levi explains how he feels it’s his duty to produce a safe vehicle. “Some people can leave their job at work,” he said. “But I have to drive mine home.”

The plant workers were picked based on interviews, and the spots were unscripted, said David Crichton, partner, creative at Grip.

“It was myself and the director asking questions and soliciting natural responses in their words,” he said.

Another spot tells the story of how a pop can, bought from a machine in the plant, is recycled and eventually becomes part of the metal used to build a Civic. None of the waste generated within the plant goes to a landfill, said Crichton, which demonstrates that Honda cares about protecting the environment.

All of the ads are built around the Civic Nation platform developed by Grip over six years ago, and resurrected for a campaign last year.

“Civic Nation is more than a great car, it’s about the people who drive them and their stories,” said Crichton.

All of the ads end with the super, “One car. A million stories,” which is more than just a tag line, said Crichton. “It’s a rallying cry and basically a way to speak to this campaign to solicit these stories attached to this car,” he said.

Viewers are also directed to CivicNation.ca where they can submit their own Civic story. For every story uploaded, Honda will donate $1 to either Earth Rangers or Clean Air Champions. Over $200 has been raised since the site went live last week.

The idea is to generate content that can be used for advertising down the road, said Crichton. 

“Who knows where this could go… It could be anything from a coffee table book to a TV campaign,” he said.  “You only know and can judge it according to the content that you receive… We’re hoping to generate some stories that are really interesting that we can react to.”

Toyota, one of Honda’s main competitors, recalled about 270,000 cars and trucks in Canada over safety concerns earlier this year. When asked if the campaign was in response to this, Crichton said the Civic is number one, “not at the expense of others but because it’s a great car. We’re not trying to capitalize on their misfortune right now.”