HOW THE JUKE-R WAS REVEALED TO THE WORLD
Nissan kept a global audience up to speed with the JUKE-R development story via social networking sites rather than by traditional means
- Nissan JUKE-R becomes an internet sensation
- More than 30,000 ‘Facebook Friends'
- ...6,294 ‘Likes', 1,877 ‘Shares' and 1,035 Comments on FB
- More than 2.3 million YouTube video views
- More than 7,000 internet articles in Europe...
- ... 5,000 internet articles in North America
- ... 2,000 internet articles in Asia/South Pacific
- ...all ammassed in three months
Dubai (13 January 2012) - A radically-different car deserves a radically-different approach to its communications. So, when JUKE-R was on the drawing board, the decision was taken to spread the news not by conventional means, but by using social media sites.
With a synergy that reflects Nissan's continuing leadership in engineering innovation, the Company's approach to telling the Juke-R story to a global audience was ground-breaking. While outlets like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have a potentially huge global reach, they are largely unregulated... or, at the very least, are out of the control of any company trying to promote a new product.
This was about harnessing the power of word of mouth, with opinions formed - and expressed - by the public. As a result, promoting JUKE-R via social media had an element of risk, but the sheer outrageousness of the entire project, and the excitement promised by the finished product, meant it didn't take long for JUKE-R to become an internet sensation.
Traffic was initially driven to dedicated internet sites, using a combination of media, both traditional and internet-based, to reveal the project. Handpicked print media and internet outlets across Europe were given unprecedented access to the ultimate Crossover during its development programme.
As they enthusiastically reported the car's birth and promoted internet links, Nissan started placing short films on YouTube and development updates on the Juke's Facebook page. By the end of 2011, no fewer than 11 'shorts' had been broadcast on YouTube (www.youtube.com/NissanJuke)... which, collectively, had been viewed more than 2.3 million times. The first video, giving an overview of the entire project, accounted for more than one million views, with the rest of the view split between the following 10 films, each of which looked at a specific aspect of the project.
At the same time, those visitors to the Juke's official Facebook page (www.facebook.com/NissanJukeOfficial) looking for JUKE-R stories helped boost Juke's ‘Friends' by an impressive 77 per cent since the start of the project. The page now has more than 32,700 friends worldwide, proving the effectiveness of the highly cost-effective campaign.
And that's backed up by many of the comments left by enthusiastic followers for the JUKE-R story.
Here is just a sample...
"Juke rocks!"
"DAMN! That's a mean looking car right there."
"JUKE-R is the most bang for your buck, everyone else is trying to catch up. Keep on dreaming..."
"I need a Nürburgring lap time!"
"I want this Batmobile."
"Will Nissan change its mind about producing Juke-R... even detuned to become GT-R's little brother?"
JUKE-R has also been a regular topic of discussion on Twitter, while countless motoring websites and individual blogs have picked up and run with the story. By the end of 2011, more than 14,000 articles had been written about the car globally.
Best of all, Nissan has been able to monitor the car's internet traffic to get an accurate picture of how the car has been received. Social media has accounted for nearly 84 per cent of JUKE-R activity, while key word searches for ‘JUKE-R', ‘Godzilla Juke', ‘GT-R Juke' and ‘Super Juke' together account for more than 80 million Google searches.
And there's bound to be more to come, following exclusive first drives by the automotive media of the JUKE-R in Dubai and its official pace car role at the Dubai 24 Hours race.
"JUKE-R was designed and built to appeal to enthusiasts and we are delighted by the huge global following it has created. Our interaction with social media on this project has been an unqualified success and shows just how Nissan innovates as much in its marketing communications as it does with its product development. We opened the doors of Nissan on this project in order to allow enthusiasts to share in the story from its conception, through development to the first test drives.....and the story is far from over," said Gabi Whitfield, General Manager, Communications, Nissan in Europe.
