The Civic Project: Musical Road
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009Last night I saw a TV spot that seemed vapid and pointless. Something about driving and musical roads. I knew it was for the Honda Civic but it didn’t seem to be accomplishing anything. It hit me as a blatant waste of national advertising dollars in an economy where every dime should be used to generate the maximum ROI – even more so now than usual. So I came in this morning with the intent purpose of filleting these perpetrators of such flagrant economic irresponsibility. And then I revisited the spot on YouTube.
I love that musical road.
I want all roads to have music. To be entertaining and engaging rather than annoying and nerve wracking. Those “stay awake” striations are always a little unnerving. Wouldn’t musical vibrations keep us awake just as effectively? And bravo to Honda for making our lives just that little bit better. I realized, after completing my ten minute fact finding mission, that I wasn’t watching a TV spot per se – I was watching a very cool strategy begin to unfold.
Honda, the car company, has taken it upon themselves to make our roads sing. And, even more strategically, the “making of” video proclaims that Honda has always been about “connecting drivers to the road”. OK that’s a bit of a stretch – but undoubtedly one for the marketing textbooks. These guys are really doing something cool! And it’s so strategically on target for their brand. So why am I worried?
Well, for starters, they’re spending a lot of advertising dollars on what I’ll refer to as their “teaser” ads. Might be brilliant if timed to perfection- but they’ve got a small window of opportunity – and then they’re just wasting money. Once we get past that we start to wonder if the whole effort will be predicated on one road in Lancaster, California, or if Honda really intends to change this country’s roadscape. Can Honda afford to make a notable impact – or will they spearhead the effort and attempt to engage engineers and architects designing our roads and bridges, i.e. where are they going with this? And finally, is all of this really going to make us buy Honda Civics? In my case the answer would be, hell no – but in fairness they’re probably not targeting me. I will certainly be watching for reports on how Civic sales are impacted. And by God I’ll be rooting for them!