Nissan was facing a tough situation in the Nordics. Its Qashqai and Qashqai+2 models, which created the crossover category, as well as its Juke and Murano models were getting a lot of heat from competitors in the crossover area, especially Korean and Chinese newcomers, but also established German and Japanese brands. Most competitors had stronger brands and were overspending Nissan in media two or threefold.

Another challenge for Nissan had long been the gap between their existing customer base, 55+ drivers on the countryside, and their currently desired target segment, young urban achievers, who avoided advertising and consumed a lot of digital content. To add to the challenge, no significant upgrades to the crossover lineup were coming during the year.

In short, Nissan needed an innovative marketing concept that could spread without massive investments in paid media and would also be attractive to professional media, lifting brand awareness and consideration especially among young Nordic drivers, without product novelties in the horizon that would help in the task.

Researching our audience, we noted that Nordic car buyers went for car content, trusted celebrities as authorities, liked to keep up with reality TV even if they didn't watch it, and loved competing with their neighboring countries in any competition possible. Using these insights, we created Nissan RUMBLE, the first reality rally in the history car marketing, with the audience in the four primary Nordic countries – Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark – moving their country teams' cars across four countries during a seven-day race with liking, sharing and commenting on the content they posted from on the road and the reality episodes they filmed during missions in milestone cities along the way. The teams were headed by a local celebrity from each country. Before the race, the celebrities asked for the general public to apply as their co-driver. And applications poured in.

Close to 230,000 Facebook users engaged with the campaign, generating 385,000 interaction stories (likes, shares, comments) on Facebook. 50,000 of the 69,000 fans gathered during the campaign were actively talking about Nissan Rumble. At best, RUMBLE content reached almost 2,8 million unique Facebook users, or 11% of the market population in a single day, other days being also very successful. The Nordic fan base on Facebook grew from 15,700 to 69 300 fans in eight weeks, making us the biggest car brand in the Nordics at the time.