Honda Australia has launched a new digital content-driven campaign showcasing the brand’s all-new hatch, the Civic Type R, that features a number of Australian athletes.
The digital campaign – produced by advertising agency Leo Burnett – defines what it means to be the quintessential ‘Type R’ personality by experiencing the extensive shift to an athlete’s mind and body when put through their paces in a heart-racing Civic Type R hot lap.
“Anything we post through our social channels on Civic Type R absolutely explodes,” said Scott McGregor, general manager customer & communications, Honda Australia.
“One post alone that showed the very first customer cars arriving in Australia and coming off the ship reached over 250,000 people organically.
“We have such an engaged and enthusiastic Civic Type R customer base, particularly on Facebook, so it’s the ideal platform to speak directly to them with content created specifically for them.”
The athletes involved in the campaign were selected based on their adrenalin-pumping professions – V8 Supercar driver Melinda Price, big wave surfer Danny Griffiths, and parkour athletes Brodie and Dylan Pawson, who rose to fame thanks to their dominance on Australia’s Ninja Warrior.
The footage was shot locally in Melbourne with a mix of hand-held cameras and GoPros fitted to both the vehicle and the athletes, ensuring every angle and real-life reaction was captured.
Sport scientist, Shannon Barnes, from Victoria University Melbourne recorded real-time data showing how the athlete’s bodies reacted to the hot-lap. Heart rate, respiratory rate, skin temperature, G-forces and cortisol levels were measured before, during and after the experiment to determine which of the athletes were ‘Type R’.
Honda’s new Civic Type R launched in October and has racing in its DNA. It set the new benchmark lap time for a front-wheel drive car around the infamous Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany in April.
