Cars are no longer simply transport vehicles for dates — they are the date. The NewHouse agency used this concept as a base for its advertising campaign for Honda’s new CR-Z coupe.

The NewHouse, a student-run advertising agency in Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, has been selected as one of the top 10 competitors in American Honda’s Media Challenge for Honda’s CR-Z sport hybrid.

The competition requires teams of three students to develop a public relations campaign for Honda. The top 10 teams must submit a final report Dec. 1, and three of those teams will be chosen Dec. 8 to compete in a final round. The first place team will be awarded a visit to a major city to attend a product launch in April 2011.

Since 1990, EdVenture Partners, the creators of the competition, designed and managed programs bringing together professionals and university students into real-world marketing and learning experiences.

Adam Bielman, president of The NewHouse, and his team submitted their plan Sept. 30 and were chosen by Honda as one of the top 10 teams. Bielman, a senior advertising major and advertising representative for The Daily Orange, is working with senior Yang Yang and junior Jennifer Brotman, both advertising majors.

‘We were inspired by the combination that Honda has so uniquely manufactured — the sports hybrid car,’ said Yang, director of strategy of The NewHouse.

Bielman said the speed of a sports car and the usefulness of a hybrid gave way to the idea that opposites attract in a personal relationship. With this in mind, the campaign idea, ‘You & Me,’ was created.

‘Because the car is only two seats, it’s really intimate, either you’re in there with someone you know really well, or if you’re by yourself, then you know the car really well,’ Bielman said.

The team members formulated a YouTube campaign on the concept of speed-dating. They created a YouTube channel called ‘YouAndMeCRZ,’ in which they will upload real-life dates they record between college students. Each date is posted online and allows viewers to vote which date is the most successful.

The ‘You & Me’ campaign was chosen over the ‘Experience You’ campaign from Hill Communications, a student-run public relations firm at Newhouse.

The group’s Facebook page received a total of 211 ‘likes,’ and the ‘YouAndMeCRZ’ YouTube channel has hit a total of 2,213 views as of Nov. 15.

‘It’s much easier to get a video to go viral than a Facebook ‘like.’ We succeeded in it going viral,’ said Bielman.

Yang said Honda personally contacted the group and recognized The NewHouse’s use of YouTube connectivity and getting people to participate in the campaign.

Bielman said Honda wanted a creative solution and social media-based strategy to promote the sport hybrid coupe. The group was given $150 from Honda and a Flip video camera to help create its advertising campaign.

‘They want the most creative plan to make an impression using social media, as well as traditional media,’ Bielman said. ‘Most bang for their buck, basically.’

The group has worked for the past five weeks on the competition. On Halloween, The NewHouse members held a costume competition in which they had SU students pose next to the Honda CR-Z in their costumes. They uploaded photos onto their ‘CR-Z Syracuse’ Facebook page and had viewers vote for the best costume. The NewHouse awarded the winner with a gift card.

Yang said the group gave Honda an ultimatum for how many hits its videos, Facebook page and Twitter account could get. The NewHouse team members initially believed they could get 50,000 total media impressions.

‘With our earned media coverage and social media engagement, we’ve already surpassed that,’ Bielman said.

‘We want to engage the viewers to vote on the videos,’ Yang said. ‘It generates a more lasting impression on Honda and the campaign.’

khor@syr.edu

Published on November 14, 2010 at 12:00 pm