Honda taps customers' stories to highlight safety features on social media

Dive Brief:

Honda next month will roll out a social media campaign as part of its "Safety for Everyone" campaign to highlight the safety features of its vehicles. The social media push will showcase actual Honda customers who have benefited from the car brand's active and passive safety technologies, per an announcement.
Honda gathered the inspiring stories from customers' social media posts and letters received from thankful customers. The company's Honda Sensing selection of safety and driver-assistive technology is now standard or available on every new Honda model in the U.S.
The centerpiece of the campaign is a pair of 30- and 60-second spots that dramatize how the carmaker's automatic braking feature can help to avoid deadly collisions and their devastating consequences. The commercials will run on national cable and network TV through Nov. 30 and on sports networks through January during professional football, hockey and basketball games.

Dive Insight:

Honda's omnichannel campaign aims to connect with young adults whom are difficult to reach through TV, and are heavy users of social media apps like Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube. Honda can also show its commitment to a cause such as reducing traffic fatalities, which exceeded 40,000 for the third straight year in 2018, according to the National Safety Council. Generation Z tends to favor brands that demonstrate their commitment to working in society's best interest, according to a separate survey by brand consultancy BBMG and strategy firm GlobeScan.

Generation Z car buyers also tend to be more aware of the latest automotive technologies, including on-board entertainment systems and safety features. Ninety-one percent of Gen Z consumers are familiar with advanced safety technology like blind spot detection, compared with 85% of the general population, per a survey by Autotrader. More than half of consumers (52%) want forward collision avoidance technology like Honda's Collision Mitigating Braking System — which is featured in the "Safety for Everyone" campaign — installed as standard equipment in vehicles, Autotrader's consumer survey found.

Honda's recent promotional activity aimed at younger consumers also includes the sponsorship of esports events. The carmaker last month became the exclusive automotive sponsor of the Riot Games League of Legends Championship Series (LCS). Honda has been in the esports and video gaming space since 2014. Since then, it has sponsored EA's first NHL World Championship, partnered with Team Liquid and teamed with Twitch to create the Honda Head 2 Head program.

Honda in January showcased the latest prototype of its vehicle infotainment system, which included integrations with Lego, Grubhub and Mastercard. The camaker also started testing a points-based loyalty program to let customers earn rewards for activities such as buying services, streaming music and video and playing games.