Conventionally, most brands deliver functional product information in a very dull way which doesn’t really grab people. And the work in the electric vehicle category in particular has been either very ‘worthy’ or ‘sci-fi’, doing little to be relevant to ‘normal people’.

Our idea was to do the opposite, using humour and an unlikely spokesperson to help people learn more. And so we created The Foolproof Guide to Electric Driving - a series of webisodes and other content in which the downbeat and quirky British comedian Joe Wilkinson tackled some of the most searched about electric vehicle topics.

The films saw him in his Nissan LEAF as he explored electric driving in the heart of suburbia, visiting deliberately unglamorous locations like a car wash, a bank and the driveway of an unsuspecting Nissan LEAF owner.

The Foolproof Guide to Electric Driving’ comprised 5 webisodes that answered the five most frequently asked questions about electric vehicles via search engines.

The videos were served across predominantly YouTube and Facebook, with the campaign rolling out across multiple touch points and executions styles. Facebook optimised edits, carousels, pre-rolls, banners and an online quiz to determine if an EV could fit your lifestyle were all part of the suite of assets produced.

The campaign went live in January 2016 on Youtube first backed by search optimisation and was boosted every few months, with uplift in media support in the weeks following planned TV bursts, a time when consumers were most likely to act on their interest.

The KPI of the campaign was to have consumers spend time with the brand learning about EV.

The films have received 5.59m views (2.9m views on Facebook and 2.6m on Youtube).

View time is over 3 years and has been the most effective and successful Nissan campaign on Youtube for view duration.

The Facebook video impressions alone are in excess of 16.75m with over 26,000 viewers then electing to click to site showing a direct interest in researching the LEAF specifically.

LEAF sales have subsequently increased YOY by 13% to 5,181 and the category continued to grow (34.1% YOY from Mar16-Mar17).