Honda Jazz ad jumps from TV to smartphone

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Honda is set to launch the first television advertising campaign that lets consumers interact with a TV ad via an iPhone app to promote its new Jazz model.

The free app uses “screen-hopping” technology to allow audiences to engage with characters that appear in the “This Unpredictable Life” TV ad by transferring them to the mobile handset screen in real time.

Users can then “play” with the interactive features of the characters that “hop” from TV to mobile. Honda says the campaign is in-tune with the changing way audiences consume media, using multiple screens at the same time.

Honda marketing director Martin Moll says that the campaign is part of Honda’s strategy to appeal to “a different type of consumer” and build engagement rather than aiming to directly encourage sales.

Moll says: “They might not directly buy a Honda product today. It might not fit their lifestyle need, but actually these are great talking points.

“For me, it is not about the product sale here and now. These are communities where they want that level of engagement. You are exciting them and it is relevant to them.”

News of the campaign comes as the Japanese car maker reported profit for its third quarter.

Net profit dropped to 81.1bn Yen (£622m), down from 135bn Yen a year earlier, as the value of overseas sales were hit by the strong Yen.

The animated campaign, created by Wieden+Kennedy, launches tomorrow 1 February.

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