We created a standard billboard, but with a crazy twist—it had a typo. The billboard challenged people to spot the typo in the headline. It was an error you wouldn’t easily see, especially if you were too captivated by the car.

Gino Quillamor, a celebrity DJ based in Manila tweeted about how it drove him crazy. Moments later, his tweet drove his followers crazy, and then local websites and their readers went crazy. His tweet sparked a massive online hunt for the elusive typo. Suddenly, the rest of the world was going crazy looking for it.

During the height of the chaos, Nissan acted quickly by giving our celebrity a Juke to drive for a week. Our celebrity took our offer and talked about his experience online. Because of this, others suddenly wanted to drive it and buy it, which led to a spike in test-drive requests and sales.

The typo billboard was mounted last February 23, 2016 along C5, a major highway where cars usually get stuck in Manila’s extremely heavy traffic. This allowed people to stare at the billboard for a long time until they found the typo. As the brand hoped, commuters took photos of it to be shared on their social media networks.

Essentially an outdoor ad, the billboard went beyond traditional media and became a global online phenomenon.

To this day, the billboard is still up and is still gaining more and more attention.

It sparked worldwide conversation online:

• Earned free pickups in major local and global sources with a cumulative monthly site visit of over 75M

• Online discussions and pickups recorded in over 40 countries

• Trended internationally with over 16K organic shares

• 7.67M total reach

The campaign was a shot in the arm for Nissan’s languishing local image:

• During the campaign, positive sentiment for the Juke (34.33%) overshadowed competition including Ford Ecosport (20.81%), Honda HRV(22%), and Hyundai i20 (25%).

Even Nissan Global called it best practice:

• Included in Nissan’s Global Brand Driver, which showcases the best work around the world.

Best of all, it led to an increase in inquiries and sales for the Juke:

• 410% increase in test-drive requests

• Achieved 190% of sales target