Oct19

Honda’s Facebook “Love” Experiment

by Heather Whaling

Everyone knows someone who loves a Honda. At least, that’s what Honda is out to prove with their heavily-promoted “Facebook experiment.”

If you watched football this weekend, you probably saw more than a handful of Honda ads. But, instead of driving viewers to the main Honda website, the commercials encouraged users to visit www.facebook.com/honda, where they’re greeted with the Honda Facebook love experiment!

Upon arriving, users see:

Honda Facebook

Want to help Honda prove the experiment? Tell them what Honda you’re in love with, or invite your friends to declare their Honda adoration.

Love Honda

I Love

After a soft launch in August, Honda is making a big push, supported by a significant ad buy. Britt, from RPA, the agency that created the campaign, left a comment on another blog in August providing some additional insight:

I’m the PR manager here at RPA. Here’s a bit of background about the Honda’s Facebook social experiment:
Honda launched its official Facebook page earlier in August (www.facebook.com/honda) with a social-experiment application to show how everyone knows someone who loves a Honda—think six degrees of separation. The initial page Facebook users land on will ask users to join the social experiment. From there, users can become a fan of Honda and become a fan of Insight, Fit and Accord Crosstour. The remaining nine Honda vehicles will have fan pages in the near future. Once users participate, they can see how they are connected to their friends, view a chain of friends in their Honda web, and find out just how long their chain extends around the world—e.g., XX people in XX countries. Early participants in the social experiment may also be chosen to appear in a national TV spot for this significant Honda Brand campaign, set to launch in early October.

With more than 116,000 fans and counting, Honda may be on to something. Who doesn’t take friends’ and family members’ opinions into consideration during the car buying process? When I buy a car, I ask lots of people for input. Honda knows that — and now they’re simplifying the process by showing us which of our friends are also their fans.

I like that Honda uses their TV ad buy to drive the online campaign. But, I wonder why the main Honda website doesn’t link to the Facebook campaign (at least that I could find)?

What do you think about Honda’s “love” campaign? Do you know someone who loves Honda?

  • mrsnghtowl
    In Sept of 2008, my husband and I located and purchased a 1984, Honda Prelude, with one owner and offical mileage of 86,897. The mileage is still low but now is approx 88,900.
    I myself love to drive this car with my dog, Shadow. Rather than trying to maneuver the P/U Dodge Truck, he uses.
    It is a great around the town vehicle. It was a steal when we purchased it and may now even be worth more than what we paid.
    I LOVE MY HONDA PRELUDE!!!!!
  • andydonovan
    Great post on the Honda initiative on Facebook Heather. I, for one, love the campaign and see it as being a bit of a trail blazer here. Yes Facebook has been used for other campaigns but I like this one as it is pretty non-intrusive and will hopefully help them down the road. Cheers.
  • I saw an ad for this campaign in a movie theatre last week. My friends all commented, "We don't drive. How can we love something we don't need?" Maybe it's because we don't own cars, but even when I did own a car, I didn't feel a burning need to declare my love for my car's brand. I guess I'm just having a hard time picturing who these Honda Lovers are that this campaign is for. Young guys who soup up their CRX? Young families who want to see what their friends on Facebook drive?

    From the 17 user reviews of the app (mostly positive) I see one disappointed Honda TruFan that isn't getting enough interactivity with the cars, one disappointed consumer who wanted to love a hybrid publicly, and a few happy car salesmen. I guess the salesmen make sense; this app should help them in their local area as a fun way to involve their network with their brand. But as the TruFan points out, there's not a lot for him to do with the app, and he wants to. Badly.
  • heatherwhaling
    It does seem odd that they'd show this kind of ad in NYC, where most people don't own cars. (At least I think that's true.)

    I have a Honda anecdote. I was in the car with a client the other day on our way to meet with a prospect. My client used to have a Honda and now has an SUV from some other maker. Multiple times during the ride (like when her SUV started rattling), she mentioned how much she missed her Honda ... that it was the best car she ever owned. Then, when we finally got to our destination, somehow the topic of cars came up again. Another woman in the meeting talked about how reliable her Honda was and how she'd never get some other kind of car. Before then, I had no idea how many people actually love their cars (me not being a real "car" person), but after that experience, I totally believe people LOVE their Hondas. :) That said, the app does beg the question: What next? Honda gets people "fan" their page -- then what?
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