The Nissan Qashqai is a new car from Nissan that's attempting to mix two established genres of car; the hatchback and the 4x4. Nissan decided that the best market segment to target this at would be young to middle-aged men, and so an advertising campaign was required to target the product correctly. TBWA came up with the idea of showcasing the cars in the fictional "Qashqai Car Games", a sport much like competitive skateboarding, where the cars would be driven off ramps and perform tricks.
The campaign started before the car's launch with a series of viral advertisments in which the cars, drivers and settings would be introduced. One advert shows some young men on the way to see an event hidden in a container dock, only to be rumbled by the police, and them running away. The stunts that the cars perform in the adverts are clearly extremely dangerous, not to mention largely impossible, so the advert is clearly computer animated. But I don't think the stunts lose too much from this; the urgency and speed that the computer animation lends them makes them look like real skateboards. It makes the cars look really nimble, which is exactly the point of a small 4x4.
Besides the fact that I personally find 4x4s morally reprehensible, these adverts are pretty damn good. They really work as virals because they're well enough shot as to create an illusion of reality surrounding the 'sport', leave you curious, and wanting more.
The rest of the campaign consisted of print and television advertisements, most notably the television ad being the one of a man standing on a Qashqai, 'skating' it around a city. The advert showcases the agility of the car, and finishes with the skateboarder sliding it perfectly into a car parking space.
It's nice to see car and advert producers doing something a little bit different, not only for the prospective consumer, but for everyone else who has to sit through adverts.
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