Honda evokes Disney memories with 'Enchanted Odyssey' digital campaign

Dive Brief:

Honda is highlighting the features of its 2021 Odyssey minivan in a social media campaign featuring Disney characters and Disneyland attractions. The "Enchanted Odyssey" push shows the minivan's features for families, including an integration between its interior cameras and rear-seat reminder, per an announcement shared with Marketing Dive.
In addition, Honda created a Disney Hits playlist with songs from its movies to highlight the Odyssey's integrations with its in-car entertainment system and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. A preview video on YouTube shows how families can use the Odyssey's features to keep their kids entertained on road trips with a playlist that evokes memories of visiting Disneyland.
Honda also created its first microsite attached to its brand page on image-sharing platform Pinterest. The campaign includes video, static and carousel pins that let Pinterest users bookmark and save their favorite posts, per the announcement.

Dive Insight:

Honda's "Enchanted Odyssey" campaign featuring Disney characters and Disneyland attractions aims to reach millennial parents who tend to use social media more often than older generations. The Odyssey minivan has the highest percentage of millennial buyers than any other Honda model, according to the company, making young adults the most important demographic segment for the carmaker.

The campaign also features an expanded presence on Pinterest, which has 90 million users in the U.S., many of whom use the platform to help plan purchases. More Pinterest users search for Disney than for any other brand, per company data cited by Honda, making the platform suitable for a campaign integration with the media and entertainment giant.

Honda's campaign is notable for its change in tone since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, when the company focused its messaging on how it was helping people get through the crisis. Honda's "Enchanted Odyssey" campaign is more upbeat with its depiction of a family enjoying a road trip with Disney entertainment. Disney this month began a phased reopening of its Downtown Disney District that has an open-air shopping mall, but the Disneyland hotels and parks in Southern California remain temporarily closed amid a surge in coronavirus cases in the state. The company awaits guidance from state authorities on when it can reopen, per its website.

As the COVID-19 pandemic cut into sales broadly across the automotive industry, Honda saw car sales drop 28% in the quarter ended March 30, 2020. The numbers could be even worse when auto brands report results for the second quarter of the year although there were some signs of a rebound as states reopened, which could temper the impact. How the current resurgence in infections will affect sales isn't clear yet.

Honda's latest social media campaign follows past efforts to reach younger audiences who tend to favor digital media over more traditional channels like broadcast and cable TV. The carmaker in January created an augmented reality (AR) Snapchat lens that animated its Rose Parade float with computer-generated imagery. Last year, it promoted the 2020 Civic hatchback with an animated comic book series on Facebook and Instagram to target Generation Z and millennials. It also rolled out a campaign on social media for its "Safety for Everyone" push that highlighted vehicle safety features.