Honda INSIGHT failed in positioning itself at first launch, and is regarded as a hand-me-down of PRIUS. While PRIUS is positioned as a major, high road hybrid car, the relaunched INSIGHT was developed as a hybrid not looking into the usual hybrid benefits, but to maximize the delights of a car with its own aesthetics.

The brief was to maximize the impact of the new car before relaunch, build expectations towards the car, set the car in a unique position, and create firm engagements, have people proactively choose the car.

The objective was to reposition the car, build buzz peak at the relaunch, and create sympathy with the brand.

Expose values choking our society, enabling people to transform.

A teaser communication by erasing keywords that are choking our society and questioning the audience. Messages which a major category leader cannot state, understanding the consumer sentiment, challenged the audience in bold letters on outdoor billboards differing by area and stations relevant to the users of each area. A TV spot followed the billboards, sending out the core question, enabling further understanding. The website and social media let people choose their own keywords with an easy to share interface, instantly building buzz and growing conversations.

The insight was people questioning the usual ways of thinking which were choking our society, but still not actually being able to voice it out, feeling peer pressure.

By erasing the simple, common sense keywords of everyday life, people were assured that it was not only them.

The Key message was “Believe in your INSIGHT. Run your own path.” + the selected keyword that the user chose to erase.

The target audience was the second tier, people who have not voiced out their questions on their own, but the first people who would do so with some support. Early adaptors who have started questioning how to interact with social media and smartphones.

3 key assets were outdoor billboards and digital signage on major streets and stations, social media (Twitter and Facebook) and the website built for the relaunch campaign.

Started on outdoor billboards and digital signage at major stations, stating keywords relevant to the different areas. The keywords started conversations of both sympathy and antipathy at offices and schools, growing large on social media.

Honda posted and retweeted the keywords, visualizing the conversation, leading the users to the website, where users could easily choose the keywords they wanted to erase, sharing it among their communities.

Started on the 3rd of December for 10 days till the 14th, utilizing outdoor billboards and digital signage at over 20 major stations, Twitter and Facebook, followed by a 1week TV spot campaign and press release to media owners.

Over 100 media articles written, over 1,000 posts on social media and consumer generated curation mediums in the 1st week.

The teaser campaign was accepted favorably by the audience, and over 80% answered that they felt sympathy and supported the campaign. It also appealed to the millennials, a generation that is turning away from cars. The campaign reached to over 1million people in just 1 week, arousing conversation, and engagement.

Social media followers increased rapidly creating long term Honda brand fans.

The campaign maximized sympathy towards the brand and we succeeded in positioning both the Honda brand and INSIGHT as a brand that has its own position. Owning the new INSIGHT supports to demonstrate that the user is also running his own path, and sales right after launch spiked high, 150% more than the target sales figure.