±±¾©Èü³µpk10

TBWA Simons Palmer relaunches the Nissan brand this week with a

pounds 3 million national television, poster and press campaign for the

Micra.

The new work aims to introduce a more down-to-earth, human tone, which

will extend across all Nissan’s major brand advertising in the

future.

The Japanese car manu-facturer is thought to have suffered from its

disparate advertising strategy of recent years. Creative work has veered

between the ’ask before you borrow it’ campaign for the Micra and the

70s Sweeney pastiche for the Almera.

The new Micra ads adopt a straightforward ’tell it like it is’ approach

in a bid to persuade consumers that the Micra provides quality you can

depend on.

Each of the seven TV commercials illustrates a different product

attribute of the car. A crying baby provides an analogy for the audible,

low-fuel warning while a lollipop lady helps to demonstrate the Micra’s

ability to brake from 30-0 mph in 1.6 seconds.

’This campaign credits people with the intelligence to make up their own

minds about the car’s quality,’ Neil Christie, managing director of

TBWA, said. ’It also reflects the current vogue for ’real-life’,

fly-on-the-wall documentaries.’

The commercials were created by Greg Milbourne, Jason Fretwell, Dave

Woods and Pete Harle. They were directed by Carl Prechezer through Rose

Hackney Barber. TBWA’s creative directors, Tony Malcolm and Guy Moore,

created the poster campaign with Woods and Harle. Media is by TMD.

Separately, Woods and Harle have also created a launch campaign for

Nissan’s Patrol GR. It kicks off with dual double-page spreads this

weekend, which together carry the line: ’The whole is greater ... than

the sum of its parts.’