NISMO, Nissan's performance car line with roots in race track, tuning and enthusiast audiences, was introduced to mainstream audiences in 2012. It was thus not well known compared to competition. However, ambitions were high and ground breaking ideas needed. Nissan wanted especially to generate engagement and conversation via earned PR and coverage among car, tech and lifestyle media, bloggers and audience.

We found the audience living and breathing performance monitoring, gadgets and style 24/7. To project an innovative and exciting performance brand to the most demanding audience in the world, we needed to truly be innovative and exciting; not just talk the talk but walk the walk. And so we introduced them to a world-first idea of connecting the car and the driver through a stylish, performance-driven smart watch, the NISMO Watch.

The execution comprised PR-able, high-interest content:

- concept, features and design for the watch and the mobile application.

- initial technical, mechanical and electrical studies.

- industrial design, 3D models and physical prototypes of the watch and the case made out of race tire rubber.

- NISMO Watch stand and displays at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

- video scripting, direction, animation, music and editing.

Within a week of the launch on YouTube and in the Frankfurt Motor Show, we had the global car, tech and related lifestyle media, bloggers and audience talk about the NISMO Watch, driving over 15 million earned views, a massive increase in NISMO brand conversation, and over 7,000 written pieces, 98% of which were positive.

In tune with concept cars familiar in the car world, we wanted to pre-launch the concept, measure interest, get feedback and validate product-market fit before actual market entry. And we wanted to truly own the smart device conversation to Nissan's NISMO brand, first in the world among car brands. So we created an online video as an integral part of the idea and concept. Not as a viral joke, but as drama of form, function and attitude to strike exactly the right nerves of the high-adrenaline media, blogosphere and audience. The NISMO Watch was innovation and design, but also a form of media. It was part product concept and part marketing communication, with the purpose of saying exactly the right things about the brand, as well as getting the media and audience to repeat them, along with the question: 'Can a car brand really do something like this?'.

Within a week of the prototype unveil on YouTube and Frankfurt Motor Show, all major car, tech and lifestyle media* covered the Watch with great surprise and delight. Many hailed the NISMO Watch as a new standard in smart watch design for even Apple and Samsung to learn from.

Earned Twitter Reach alone was over 15 million views and nearly 7,000 written pieces (in addition to likes and shares) were made around the world, 98% of which were positive. Overall, the global conversation around Nissan NISMO grew massively.

*e.g. Mashable/Wired/Venture Beat/Fast Company/CNET/BBC/El Pais/New York Times/TIME/Huffington Post/ZDNet/CNN/Forbes/Wall Street Journal/Engadget/El Mundo