GEEK.com: New Honda Hands ad is two minutes of video sorcery

Honda is best known for making and selling reliable, practical automobiles produced in equally practical manufacturing facilities. The company also makes other things, though. For example, motorcycles, robots, and amazing commercials to show off the cool stuff it makes. A few years back Honda won massive praise for the “cog” advert, and now it may have outdone itself with the fabulous Honda Hands commercial.

The two minute spot was debuted online a few days ago, and it’s one of the most magical two minutes of advertising you’ll ever see. It’s basically a static shot of a person playing with miniature versions of Honda’s greatest creations. This clever video starts out with a nut rolling past.

The object morphs into all manner of Honda products in surprising ways. There are dirt bikes, cars, Asimo, jet engines, and even a solar-powered concept car. These are the innovations Honda is most proud of over the last 65 years.

The Honda Hands ad simplifies the technological journey the company has embarked on in the last few decades. Honda has gone from a second fiddle to Toyota, to a respected innovator and manufacturer.

Honda says this ad “celebrates the curiosity of Honda engineers.” I’m willing to grant that — it’s human curiosity that drives science to take the tools we have and build new things. Though, a significant component of this ad is also the desire to make a really cool animation that people will talk about. If your ad is good enough, you don’t have to buy airtime.

Source;
http://www.geek.com/news/new-honda-hands-ad-is-two-minutes-of-video-sorcery-1561208/

Honda Touts Innovation, American Keiretsu For Civic

 

by Karl Greeberg of www.mediapost.com

Honda is heralding the arrival of its U.S. market icon, the 2013 Civic, unveiled at the Los Angeles auto show last fall. The campaign, via long-time agency RPA, comprises four TV spots, one of which debuted in the Rose Bowl on Tuesday. The new ads have "found" video content to talk about entrepreneurial spirit of inventors and Honda’s engineers. There are more than 10 different inventors portrayed in the spots.

The effort, which also has print and digital elements, mixes product messages with the company's corporate mantra around innovation and continuous improvement (the Japanese philosophy of Keiretsu). Three of the TV spots are for the Civic Sedan, Si Coupe and Hybrid, respectively, and a 60-second spot, which aired during the Rose Bowl, features all three of the vehicles.

Ads show both ersatz and commercial innovations (the Brompton folding bike, the laser keyboard, the 4moms origami stroller) are paired with Honda's own corporate content that tout the 2013 Civic, and the Honda racing program, but also Honda's ASIMO robot, and the manufacturer's foray into the wild blue yonder with HondaJet. 

“We wanted to not only showcase Honda's latest example of [its innovation philosophy], but embrace the other...dreamers and doers out there who share our way of thinking," said Jason Sperling, SVP, group creative director at the agency, who adds that the campaign is a kind of innovators "group hug.”

Ellen Kuras, who was behind the lens for films like “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Blow,” is director of photography, and the ads are set to the music of Santigold.

The agency says the new ads will air during primetime rotation on ABC, CW, Fox, NBC, cable and during NBA and NFL AFC Wildcard and Divisional games, as well as in nearly 60 markets during the BCS Championship.

Honda is also going with spot buys during the broadcast of the Grammy Awards on Feb. 10 on CBS. The company will air the 30-second ads in its 60 top markets during the show, and Honda will run a gatefold print ad in “Entertainment Weekly” and a YouTube masthead takeover is scheduled the day after the show.

Not least is a social media vector to get people talking about the cars and the innovations featured in the ads on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram to help create buzz and curiosity around the innovations and the new Civic.

Print will run in  ESPN The Magazine, Elle, Food Network Magazine, InStyle, GQ and People. Online ads include home-page takeovers on Yahoo and MSN, full-episode streaming and within “March Madness on Demand” and “NFL Everywhere.”

Source;

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/190284/honda-touts-innovation-american-keiretsu-for-civi.html#axzz2GyfOuRWR