Where The Rubber Meets The Abode.

Business Week 4007 (Oct 30, 2006): p18. From European Business ASAP.
Byline: Sonal Rupani; Edited by Deborah Stead

It’s almost as if GM and Nissan had joined up after all. The two auto giants are running startlingly similar ad campaigns this month. Targeting young buyers, both aim to show that their less-expensive models — a 2007 Chevy Aveo in GM’s case, a 2007 Sentra in Nissan’s — are roomy enough to live in. At least for a week.

Chevrolet’s “Livin’ Large” campaign, run by its in-house communications people and slated to launch on Oct. 23, will feature two-person teams at eight colleges, from Boston University to the University of Southern California. Instead of a dorm room or apartment, each duo (selected from about 400 applicants) will live for five days in the 90.7-cubic-foot interior of an Aveo (which also has about 12 cubic ft. of trunk space). Mounting the occasional stunts, the teams will vie for the most hits on Chevy’s 24-hour Web broadcast of their living quarters. New Aveos await the winners.

Nissan’s “7 Days in a Sentra” campaign, handled by TBWA/Chiat/Day, Nissan’s agency, aims at a slightly older (20-to-30-year-old) market. The ads feature Marc Horowitz, a photographer’s assistant and video blogger who comes home each night to a Sentra (97.7 cubic ft., 13.1 cubic ft. in the trunk) instead of his Los Angeles apartment. The 30-second TV spots, online video clips, and blog entries began airing on Oct. 16. In them, Horowitz is shown having pizza delivered to the car, playing cards with buddies, waking up in his bathrobe. “There was very little scripting,” says Michelle Erwin, a marketing manager at Nissan.

Chevrolet spokesman Travis Parman shrugs off the similarity of the campaigns. “Ours is more peer-to-peer,” he says, adding that the idea for it was largely generated by students as part of a PR competition held in April by the Public Relations Student Society of America, whose chapters are helping coordinate the campaign at the campuses.

David Smith, CEO of media planner Mediasmith, says living out of a car for a week is “not that far from reality” for some students. And both campaigns, he says, may resonate with commuters, whose average car time has grown along with traffic. Still, he cautions, “automotive folks have yet to find an appeal to get to 18-to-20-year-olds,” who usually can’t afford cars. Of the two, Chevy’s campaign carries the “greater risk,” he figures, because there’s less control. On the other hand, he notes, “If something wild and crazy happens, it has the potential to hit a home run.”