The Nissan GT-R’s $280,000 price tag, and extremely limited inventory meant there were no plans to support it with an ad campaign. So the opportunity to boast about one of Nissan’s most technologically advanced production cars was about pass by. To make noise with something so niche, we needed an idea that would rely on earned reach. So we designed a campaign to generate PR and make headlines with a limited budget by auctioning off a 1-of-1 GT-R NFT with an unbelievable reserve price, and included the keys to a real life Nissan GT-R.

The Nissan brand has always been positioned at the leading edge of innovation and technology, but an aging vehicle lineup had caused its overall opinion scores to decline over the years in Canada. Now that Nissan was able to boast one of the freshest lineups amongst its key competitors in North America, we needed a campaign that would be reflective of Nissan's innovative spirit to help reclaim their technology/innovation credibility.

Enter the all-new Nissan GT-R Nismo. A shining example of Nissan’s innovative and technological prowess. But with only three on-route to Canada, there was no planned budget or campaign to support it.

To use the GT-R to reframe consumers' perceptions of the Nissan brand, we needed an innovative idea that would breakthrough beyond expectations with minimal investment.

Make noise in the automotive world by making a limited-edition supercar, even more super limited by turning it into a 1-of-1 NFT. Then, generate hype by putting it up for auction with the reserve price of $280,000, the same price as an actual GT-R. And finally, double down on the excitement surrounding the GT-R NFT by following up with a twist by revealing that GT-R NFT comes with the keys to a real Nissan GT-R Nismo Special Edition.

The combination of its extreme limitedness, the unbelievable price tag, and the fact that it came with a real GT-R, was designed to generate PR, make headlines, and get the attention of automotive enthusiasts in Canada.

The Nissan GT-R wasn’t just chosen for its technological achievements, but also strategically for the prestige it holds among car enthusiasts in Canada. And for its huge following of super fans who are hyperactive on social. Case-in-point, #GTR has 9.6 million posts on Instagram alone. Any new news about the GT-R is almost guaranteed to be picked up by the automotive press and shared by its fans across their social channels.

The other thing that makes headlines in the automotive community, is limited edition models. The rarer a vehicle, the more desirable it becomes.

We knew that by turning the GT-R into a 1-of-1 NFT with a striking key visual that we would capture the attention of the automotive community. What we didn’t know, is that it would breakthrough genres to get the attention of the crypto space, finance, arts & culture, and HypeBeast.

We launched with a teaser post on Nissan’s social channels. A stylized visual of the front end of GT-R with a GT-R NFT custom number plate. Then, just days before the auction we posted the GT-R NFT. A visually striking, scroll-stopping work of digital art featuring the GT-R in a surreal environment.

We shared our digital art through conventional automotive PR channels, knowing that combination of our striking visual, the extreme limitedness of the work, the unbelievable price tag, and the fact that it came with the keys to a real GT-R, would give automotive journalists more than enough to craft highly clickable headlines.

And it worked. 100% of the articles featured our key visual. And included a headline based on the GT-R NFT’s limitedness, price tag, or that the NFT came with a real GT-R.

Potential reach of 71 million across traditional and social media, resulting in an estimated total media value of $585,000, ten times the value of the media investment

The GT-R NFT appeared in over 133 media articles in 24 countries with 100% of them using our key visual.