The 100% electric Nissan LEAF came to market amid a recession, a historically-low car buying market and massive eco-car complacency—our target consumer already had a Prius: why buy another new car? Our answer was to present the LEAF as a quantum leap past hybrids, or anything else in automotive history. This was not another new car, this was the new car. The campaign sought to address two major targets: "early adopters" and the "pragmatic majority." We would convince early adopters that the LEAF was a game-changing car they could drive right now. And we’d convince the pragmatic majority that the LEAF was a car they could look forward to: the inevitable car of the future.

Our NISSAN LEAF campaign describes it as "the new car." We took the idea of new as inspiration to redefine everything related to the vehicle - from its specs to its fuel efficiency rating. We offered a chance to win a car through the iAd - a first. And we developed a future history of the NISSAN LEAF as an epic video to set the whole thing up.All of this messaging was packed into 6 easy to digest sections, and delivered via a carousel navigation that served the dual purpose of showing off a 360 view of the car.

Nissan received over 800 LEAF reservations in the first hour and tallied more than a quarter of its total LEAF reservation goal within the first 24 hours. Nissan met its year-end LEAF reservations goal (20,000 reservations) three and a half months ahead of schedule, before a majority of buyers had ever driven the car.The number of early adopter hand-raisers who opted-in to learn more about the LEAF exceeded goals by 62%. Online consumer buzz around the LEAF jumped 42% (between March 2010 and December 2010), while positive opinion among early adopters (opinion amongst those very/somewhat familiar with LEAF) jumped 20 points. Such growth in influencer opinion indicates LEAF is well positioned for success with the Pragmatic Majority, as our early adopters evangelize to the broader market over the coming years.