Honda Eco Challenge

Honda unveiled its new hybrid – the Insight – in Japan in February 2009.  It was set to release the model two months later in markets across the world. Priced less than the Toyota Prius, Insight targeted the mass audience with its global campaign message, “Hybrid for Everyone”. The challenge was to introduce Insight drivers in Spain, aged 16 - 55, generating maximum awareness and test drives.

The international TV spot was heavily price-focused and risked being lost within the recessionary Spanish climate in which price-marketing reigned. Honda needed to create a product-focused, high-engagement communication to place Honda’s hybrid product to top-of-mind and convert consumer interest to test drive registrations.

Consumer interest was bleak. Aside from the recession, in which consumers didn’t consider a big-ticket item like a new car, Spaniards weren’t interested in hybrid motoring. They perceived hybrid cars as complicated, niche, and boring. Insight needed to be emotional, exciting, and inclusive. While competitive price benefits were enough to compel consumers to discover the Insight in some countries, Honda believed that the state-of-the-art engineering underneath the hood that offered the consumer an enhanced driving experience would motivate Spaniards into the Insight's driver seat.

To engage Spaniards with Insight, Honda enabled consumers to take “and keep” a piece of Insight for themselves: their own eco-driving score, ranked against others across the nation, including those of Spanish celebrities. Honda initiated a public showdown between Spanish celebrities, each eager to beat the other’s eco-driving score, and invited the consumer to take part. Honda launched the Eco Challenge: A tournament of test drives by which Spanish drivers could determine their eco-driving score and compete with. celebrities to be Spain’s greenest driver.

The Eco Challenge initiative offered consumers a product-centric benefit at zero-cost with high-reward potential: the opportunity to experience an Insight, achieve an Eco score, be part of a greater community and compare themselves to their idols with the chance to meet them, too. Celebrity footage projected via mass media would instigate the competitive spirit amongst the population and generate word of mouth. Local media and opinion leaders would then serve as a call-to-action for consumers to participate in the Eco Challenge event, for which consumers could register online. Generating test drives, Honda sought to produce product evangelists and eventually, sales.

Dani Pedrosa, Spain’s youngest Grand Prix motorcycle racing world champion, inaugurated the Eco Challenge. With Pedrosa as frontman, Honda linked eco-driving with sporty-driving, thereby setting the context for the Eco Challenge initiative. Pedrosa test drove the Insight in the first of a series of 60-second micro-programs, and challenged TV personalities to beat his Eco score. An entourage of celebrities accepted, each headlining a 60s spot.

Word of the Eco Challenge spread through special mentions in racing coverage on TV and online, further distinguished by our alignment with Pedrosa. Consumers registered online (hibridoparatodos.es) for test drive events at closed-circuit driving courses across the country: a dream-come-true for driving enthusiasts! Top drivers from each city won the opportunity to compete in a national Grand Prix against celebrities and other amateurs, building a strong public perception behind the car. The final event was streamed online, and recapped on TV. Local newspaper, radio, seeded messages via search, social networks and news websites all served to drive additional traffic online, where consumers revisited celebrities' driving performances, read interviews, and contributed to opinion posts and blogs. Placing the Insight at city shopping centers, racing organization events and at the Barcelona Motorshow further drove WOM.

The Honda Insight spots came to be quickly and easily identifiable; an iconic creator of celebrity reality-TV content. The campaign catapulted Honda Insight to an 80% recall amongst adults. The Eco Challenge test drive events reach maximum capacity, with 2040 consumers participating in competitions in 17 Spanish cities. An additional 6100 consumers test drove the Insight at Honda dealerships. In total, 5025 new online registrations were logged, growing Honda’s database. In the first six months of the campaign, 464 Insight hybrids sold, doubling Honda’s share of the hybrid market to 21% (vs. 10% in 08).