Social Media gets motoring with Honda
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Tue, Jun 15, 2010
Social Media is growing and growing fast only last week did Hitwise come out that Facebook traffic is passing out Google. Well it now looks that Social Media is planning to go even faster now. Only recently, Honda has commissioned a Facebook application in a bid to generate more buzz around its new CR-Z sporty petrol-electric hybrid car. Traditionally hybrids have had a less than trendy image, partly due to the style and look for their current Prius model. Honda now plans to turn this image around with the CR-Z by targeting to a younger demographic. What better way to target a young demographic than with Social Media?
What can Social Media and Facebook do for Honda? Honda's "Mode Art" campaign allows users to download images that highlight the car's three driving modes. Click "Sport", for example, and your image (along with your birthday, cat's name or whatever else you entered) appears surrounded by racy red and pink patterns; for "Normal" the palette switches to blue; and for "Econ" to green. These images can be used as mobile wallpaper, oddly the pictures do not include any representations of the car itself. But it still is social media in action.
So will Social Media and Facebook mange to sell the more CR-Z's? Probably not on their own; as with most social media it needs to be backed up with offline marketing and sales. But still, Honda cannot afford to miss out on social networking. Apparently the campaign generated 5,000 "fans" in its first day with very little media spend compared to traditional marketing. So Honda can already see the benefits of their social media.
If you are like Honda and new to Social Media and Facebook, check out our SiliconCloud webinar tomorrow on how to use Inbound Marketing to grow your business. You can read more here: What is Inbound Marketing.