Midas Collective in Marketing Week and NMA

There’s are stories in Marketing Week and NMA on Midas Collective and Honda this week, click to have a read. You need to be a subscriber to read the full NMA article.

Honda takes integrated approach to digital

Here’s a Midas Collective press release that went out yesterday, 15 May 2007.
Honda takes integrated approach to digital
After a lengthy review, Honda has decided against bringing in a new agency to head up its digital activity. Instead, Honda is looking to its existing agency team, including incumbent digital specialist Midas Collective, to drive its ambitious digital goals.
Key to this decision is a desire to foster a close, collaborative work ethic across Honda’s team of agencies. Honda’s Marketing Manager, Ian Armstrong, states, “With the increasing part digital will play in the future of car purchasing and consumers relations with brands it is important to find a model that integrates all areas of the communications plan. We will continue to develop our existing relationships to find the best model for Honda that will result in better strategic decisions.”
Greg Doone, Managing Director of Midas Collective, adds, “Obviously this is very good news for Midas, however, it needs to be seen as the start of a journey to fully integrate digital into Honda’s existing, and hugely successful, brand campaign work. We are looking forward to working closely with the agency team to deliver more remarkable work during the next 18 months.”
The agency has been behind a series of highly successful digital campaigns for Honda over the past four years. The most recent of these have Hondamentalism (http://www.hondamentalism.com/) and Warm Technology (www.Honda.co.uk/warmtechnology). In addition to this Honda and Midas were nominated for a revolution award in 2007 for the Civic Choir site (www.Honda.co.uk/civic).
Midas Collective’s close relationship with Wieden & Kennedy, Hicklin Slade and Starcom is seen as a key factor in this decision, as is the consistent quality of its creative work for Honda over a number of years.

Mobile Widgets

Midas Collective went to the Mobile Mondays Mobile Widgets event last night as part of “Widgets Week”. It was good to see a load of mobile widgets demos, and meet mobile widgets company Widsets, who are backed by Nokia, and get their view on the potential for mobile widgets.

Midas Collective are exhibiting at Online Marketing 2007

We’re getting ready to exhibit at the Online Marketing Show 2007, at the Business Design Centre, Islington, London, 26-27 June. Hope to see you there. The show is promoted by NMA and Marketing Week. Click here for free tickets.

Honda up 12 places in Marketing Week YouGov’s brand index survey

Marketing Week have published a list of the top 100 consumer brands for 2006, as measured by YouGov.
Good news is our client Honda have gone up 12 positions in YouGov’s brand index survey, from 101 in 2005 to 89 in 2006.
http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/download/5185/MW_best_brands_small2.pdf

Honda win Cannes Lions Advertiser of the Year

There’s a feature in Campaign magazine today:
“Honda has been named Cannes Lions Awards’ 2007 Advertiser of the Year - the gong awarded for inpirational marketing. The trophy will be presented to Ken Kier, the senior vice-president of Honda Motor Europe, at the 54th Cannes Lion Awards Ceremony on 23 June”.
Congratulations to everyone at Honda and W&K London.

Hello Internet World

Hi to all the interesting people we met at the Internet World show at Earl’s Court last week.

www.hondamentalism.com is live

We’re excited because the new website we created supporting Honda’s latest ad campaign has gone live at http://www.hondamentalism.com/. The site was created as part of an integrated campaign in collaboration with Honda’s ad agency Wieden & Kennedy. It features W&K’s great Hondamentalism TV ad, background on Honda’s Type R cars, and an online challenge to find out if you are a Hondamentalist, with a chance to win a day with Honda’s F1, Superbike or Powerboat team. Have a look and see what you think.

Hondamentalism press release from Honda

Here’s Honda’s press release on Hondamentalism.
Media InformationWednesday, May 02, 2007
HONDA SHOWCASES RACING SPIRIT AND PASSION FOR ENGINEERING IN NEW CIVIC TYPE R CAMPAIGN
Honda’s new integrated advertising campaign breaks nationwide on Monday 7th May, to support the recent launch of its best-selling hot hatch, the Civic Type R.
Developed by Wieden & Kennedy, the first TV creative introduces the concept of ‘Hondamentalism’ - Honda’s unique racing spirit and endless pursuit of excellence which has run throughout the whole company since day one.
The sixty second spot opens with a long road. At the far end of the road we see several bright lights. At the near end we see seven engineers. The voice of Garrison Keillor comes in, saying ‘an engineer once said that to build something great is like swimming through honey’.
Our engineers set off on the long road towards the bright lights. As their journey progresses, a strong wind begins to blow – becoming more intense as they continue, knocking them over and spreading debris around. As they struggle ever closer to those lights they are seen helping each other, carrying each other, spurring each other on against the wind.
They reach the lights and the famous ‘RedH’ Honda badge appears – a marque only carried on racing cars and Type R production vehicles. By working together, by helping each other in the massive struggle and challenge to achieve the absolute fullest potential which only the RedH logo commands, they have reached their goal. That’s Hondamentalism.
Ian Armstrong, Customer Communications Manager of Honda UK comments:“Racing is in Honda’s DNA. It always has been. Whether it’s on the bike track, the race circuit, down a mountain, on a lake – it’s what we do. Excellence in racing is achieved by going that extra mile –squeezing every last drop of effort in order to be the absolute best. That’s what Hondamentalism is, and that’s what the RedH badge embodies. Putting that badge on the bonnet of the new Type R says it all when it comes to how this racing spirit is reflected in the products we sell.”
Tony Davidson, Creative Director at Wieden & Kennedy comments:“Honda’s Red H badge is only bestowed on vehicles worthy of the race track. Internally it is an honour to be asked to work on one of these projects. No other company is as committed to research and development. No other company has such passionate engineers. No other company would dare to make a campaign like this.”
‘Hondamentalism’ is the first creative in an integrated campaign across several channels. A series of print advertisements will launch next week featuring a range of ‘Hondamentalists’ in order to demonstrate the depth of Honda’s racing and engineering heritage. Additionally, the campaign will be supported in the idents of ITV’s Formula 1 sponsorship coverage, which break next weekend.
The campaign web site – http://www.hondamentalism.com/ - will also launch on Monday 7th May. Developed by Midas Collective, it allows users to take a challenge to explore the concept further and find out if they are a ‘Hondamentalist’. The site also features all the content from http://www.redh.co.uk/ along with a new 360-degree colour changer.
‘Hondamentalism’ was directed by Mark Romanek and produced by Jonathan Chads. Creative Directors were Tony Davidson and Kim Papworth. Stuart Harkness was Copywriter, and Chris Groom was Art Director.