The objective of a brand promise is to identify a key need, desire or want based on a consumer insight, and then position your brand as the solution provider.

A campaign must balance creativity and communicating the brand promise.

Along those lines, I always keep my eyes open for ads that achieve two objectives.

  1. Identify an extremely compelling reason to buy
  2. Create an emotionally engaging message

It’s rare that I’m impressed. The Honda CRV campaign created by agency mcgarrybowen, however, astounded me.

First, the consumer insight

Honda CRV sales in Europe were stagnant. Several agencies were asked to pitch a new campaign to Honda Europe taking into account the following.

  • The primary target is middle-aged adults.
  • As the ad will be shown across Europe, the language becomes a bit of a challenge. So it’s important to rely more on visuals than words.
  • The Big Consumer Insight: The target demographic has kids leaving the home and feel that they are entering a new stage of life with many new, exciting opportunities.

With that background, the creative director at mcgarrybowen birthed the idea of using portals to visually illustrate launching a new adventure.

The use of portals is very important as they represent a peephole into another world. It’s a kin to looking in on the life or adventure that could be.

The Honda team loved it! And so have buying customers.

Why the ad works so well

The commercial is constructed in three key parts.

  1. The target demo is shown in an average situation – coming home presumably from work.
  2. A portal opens and the CRV is depicted as the vehicle that takes the driver in and on to excitement.
  3. The ad closes without showing where the driver arrives. This is important as it allows the viewer to fill-in his or her own fantasy (e.g. beach, mountains, city).
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This campaign masterfully identifies an innate need that middle-aged drivers probably feel but may not have been able to yet verbalize and then creates a powerful and emotional visualization connecting the CRV as a solution to the need.

Don’t believe me? Watch it for yourself and then here’s the link to buy your own car.