Honda Supports CR-Z Launch With "Mode Art" Facebook App: Will It Drive?

Collective, a London-based digital creative agency, last week unveiled a Facebook app as an element of a pan-European campaign tied to the launch of the Honda CR-Z. The “Mode Art” app intends to illustrate the three driving modes of the “world’s first sporty hybrid coupe” – Sport, Normal and Economy – and can be found on the Honda Cars UK page.

In addition to the Facebook application, Collective has developed Facebook and network online advertising and is aggregating social media content and conversations on the Honda.co.uk website. Brand Republic reports that a Nielsen BrandLift study will measure the effectiveness of the online activity. Collective will also be creating an iPhone “Mode Art” application.

Illustrators have created a bank of design assets reflecting each CR-Z driving modes. A user selects a design asset from his/her choice of mode and the graphics are combined with user-selected personal Facebook information to generate a random piece of art. The campaign encourages the download of the graphic for uses such as mobile wallpaper.

In a press release from Collective, Lee Anne Crossley, marketing communications manager of Honda UK, states, “We asked Collective to deliver us a campaign that would reflect the product truths and brand positioning of the Honda CR-Z. Yet again we’re delighted with Collective’s creativity and innovation, and we are optimistic that the campaign will grow virally and deliver to us the brand interactions and sales leads that we’re gearing up for.”

The idea and the illustrations are clever, but execution could have been better. The design element reserved for a snippet of the user’s profile photo assumes that his/her face is dead center. Though one can personalize with his/her name and hometown, oddly missing from the final illustration is any Honda or CR-Z branding. My attempts across multiple browsers and operating systems to download the graphic were not successful. As of the time of this posting, a representative of the campaign was exploring this technical glitch.

UPDATE June 7, 2010 1:50pm EDT: The application now works well on both Facebook and the Honda UK site.

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