Be the news

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Nissan has only recently developed a presence in Brazil and was looking to jump-start its relationship with drivers there. It wanted an innovative way to introduce its worldwide brand belief, ‘Shift’, to the Brazilian consumer.

To reach its target audience, Nissan chose O Estado de Sao Paulo, one of Brazil’s largest papers, and the most important source for people buying cars. To incorporate the idea of ‘Shift’, Nissan decided to change people’s relationship with the news. Rather than have people passively reading the news, it wanted them to become the news.

The campaign started with subscribers receiving their Sunday newspaper with the front page being absent of all articles and headlines; only an ad for Nissan appeared inviting readers to produce their own news.

To participate, readers went to the newspaper’s website, clicked on the Nissan banner ad and went to a related microsite where they could customise the front page with their own headlines, images and articles.

The following Sunday, each person who had participated became front page news. Their news stories and photos were printed on the cover of O Estado de Sao Paulo with a Nissan ad running on the bottom. More than 1,000 personalised front pages were distributed to the door step of consumers. A full-page Nissan ad ran on the next page, saying “Now that you’ve read the news, you have a whole day to buy a new car".

The ‘Shift’ campaign had the largest response for any newspaper promotion in Brazilian history. Nissan made it to the front page two Sundays in a row and its Brand Familiarity in Brazil doubled through the initiative.

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