The high-performance Integra Sort S, a part of Acura’s bestselling Integra lineup, is a good larger hit on-line than in sellers’ showrooms. It’s a star of Acura’s wildly common animated internet collection, “Chiaki’s Journey,” now in its second season.
As of June, the primary season (4 episodes that ran in 2022) has been considered almost 280 million instances. It has far exceeded expectations in connecting with youthful premium automotive consumers, lifting consideration metrics and boosting gross sales. That season was additionally awarded a Gold Effie and named a Grand Effie Contender on the U.S. Effie Awards.
The marketing campaign was created in partnership with artistic company MullenLowe and London’s The Line animation studio.
Extending the collection to a second season
This spring, the second season of “Chiaki’s Journey” launched to be able to construct on the momentum and add to the saga established in Season One. Produced in a slick anime model, with an unique rock theme music, the present follows a younger lady in search of to meet her father’s legacy as a legendary auto racer. With every episode, the viewers learns extra about Chiaki’s particular expertise and in regards to the prominence of her father, who handed away earlier than the story started.
Anime and automotive followers can see the brand new episodes on YouTube. The collection can be promoted on digital automotive and way of life properties, social media, streaming and out of doors in key U.S. markets.
Assembling a personalized internet collection to draw a brand new viewers
The Acura advertising and marketing staff all shared a private curiosity in Japanese-style anime movies. In addition they noticed that anime was experiencing a resurgence, particularly amongst youthful shoppers. Creating an anime collection round Acura gave the impression to be a method to usher in new prospects, though nobody anticipated “Chiaki’s Journey” to turn out to be as huge because it did.
“We went into this actually not understanding what to anticipate, however we had been enormous anime followers and we went into it with a method,” stated Meliza Humphrey, senior supervisor of Acura Advertising. “We didn’t know what the response was going to be, however our technique was that anime was coming again into popular culture — it was a giant factor. We knew prior to now we’d achieved campaigns resonating effectively with automotive tradition and the Acura tradition.”
The collection consists of fast-paced race sequences in addition to scenes the place the characters work on vehicles within the storage to arrange for future races. Consequently, informal anime followers and automotive fans alike discover one thing to latch onto, with loads of alternatives for Acura to weave the Sort S into the narrative.
“We’re a Japanese model and we’re a efficiency model,” stated Humphrey. “We needed to incorporate the Sort S fashions and convey an genuine story to our followers. So we began from there.”
Dig deeper: Acura makes use of NFTs to succeed in prospects digitally
Discovering and fascinating the proper prospects with content material
“Chiaki’s Journey” is tailor-made for social buzz. That’s the results of Acura’s advertising and marketing staff’s many concepts for making episodes significant to the automotive maker’s viewers and automotive fans extra broadly.
“In the event you pause in [the series character Uncle] Noboru’s storage, all of the historic elements about racing, garages, and the Acura custom — a automotive fanatic would know all of the little nuggets and Easter eggs we put in there,” stated Humphrey. “So it’s a real collaboration between us, MullenLowe and The Line to make all this stuff come to life.”
She added, “We all know who we’re making an attempt to draw to the model and once we create a marketing campaign, who that’s going to resonate with. We even have our media companions who discover the proper digital companions and do the concentrating on for us to succeed in that viewers.”
Moreover, Acura makes use of a social listening software and has a social analytics associate partaking the proper prospects on social.
Electronic mail and the client’s digital journey
“We need to have a look at views but additionally people who find themselves sharing, as an extension of engagement,” stated Humphrey. “The final word purpose is to drive folks to our web site in order that they will be taught extra.”
On the web site, prospects can construct their very own Integra nearly and join with native sellers to make a purchase order or reserve a brand new mannequin if it isn’t but out there.
“We’ve got satisfaction in how we handle our buyer database and the way clear we preserve the information,” Humphrey defined. “Inside the database, we had been capable of determine prospects and ship them an e mail marketing campaign speaking about how Sort S was coming, and teased within the anime collection.”
Stay occasions and out-of-home
To construct buzz round Integra Sort S vehicles and the second season of “Chiaki’s Journey,” Acura put in a real-life recreation of Uncle Noboru’s storage, featured within the collection, on the Acura Grand Prix of Lengthy Seashore occasion within the spring.
Out of doors advertisements in choose markets additionally had been used to sign to followers that one other season was underway. Acura made a giant splash in Instances Sq. with a Season 2 advert in 3D.
“Out-of-home was one other huge extension for the marketing campaign,” stated Humphrey. “Our out-of-home was actually positioned strategically in LA, New York’s Instances Sq. and in addition in Miami throughout the F1 season.”
On this method, motorsports and Acura followers can see an enticing collection start to take a brand new life within the bodily world round them. No plans have been made simply but for the place the collection goes subsequent.
Dig deeper: Bermuda Tourism launches 3D digital out-of-home in New York
