Automaker Honda Motor Co. Ltd.'s mobile advertising campaign to promote the launch of the Insight hybrid model achieved a click-through rate of 27 percent.

For the initiative, Honda tapped advertising agency D?Arcy, which in turn tapped Velti to design and implement an interactive mobile campaign. Banners on Orascom's Wind Plus portal promoted the car?s environmentally friendly features, while associating it with the World Wide Fund for Nature?s global environmental initiative called the Earth Hour.

?Honda and Velti have taken the first joint steps in a collaboration that resulted in increased brand awareness of the Honda brand among mobile Internet users, while providing useful information about the hybrid technology and the new Honda hybrid models,? said Yannis Antigides, Honda account manager at D?Arcy in Athens, Greece.

?Velti?s mobile Internet campaigns proved they have the ability to provide solutions that make the awareness of the advertised product soar to the desired levels and beyond,? he said.

Honda is a Japanese multinational corporation that is the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles and the second-largest Japanese automobile manufacturer.

The World Wide Fund for Nature, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund and commonly known as WWF, is an organization dedicated to the conservation of the environment.

Velti is a provider of software platforms, applications and services for advertising agencies, carriers and media companies.

The concept of the Honda Insight mobile campaign in Greece was ?60 minutes in the dark, 60 days of waiting for the new hybrid Honda Insight.?

By clicking on the banner ad, users entered a new microsite featuring information about the new Honda Insight hybrid and WWF?s Earth Hour initiative.

Users had the option of subscribing to a mobile alert service that would remind them of the date and time to switch-off the lights to participate in WWF?s initiative, aimed to convey the message that there is still time to avoid the worst impact of climate change.

By subscribing to this service, users then received text messages 60 minutes before the start of the Earth?s Hour, as well as one minute before the appointed time to switch-off the lights.

Phase two
The second phase of the campaign lasted for two weeks and was the first cross-carrier mobile-ad buy in Greece to support the launch of a car. The campaign?s tagline was ?Can you wait??

The first week was meant to create intrigue for the coming release of the Insight and increase consumers? curiosity.

Black banner ads with minimal content drew the attention of the users, engaging them in a virtual dialogue game, asking, for example, ?Can you wait for 4 more days?? or ?One day to go! Do you think you can wait??

The banner ads were updated on a daily basis, encouraging users to visit the Honda Insight mobile site.

Once on the site, users were informed about the upcoming arrival of the new Honda Insight and urged to be the first to see it.

During the second week, the new Honda Insight was presented for the first time to the public through new banner ads. Images of the new car were featured on the Honda Insight mobile site.

Visitors to the site had the chance to book a test drive, download Honda Insight-branded mobile content and subscribe to the new Honda mobile club to get the latest Honda news and initiatives via SMS.

Participants were added to a database of names. Honda is remarketing to the opted-in database of 50,000-plus unique users to promote its cars by offering members discounts, promotions and other rewards.

The banner ads and mobile alerts resulted high response rates among subscribers of the Wind Plus advertising portal, achieving a click-through rate of 26.9 percent, according to Velti.

Honda Insight?s brand awareness as a result of this campaign was considerably improved, as was the environmental profile of the brand, according to Velti.

The campaign also included ads promoting the Honda Civic hybrid model.

?Honda partnered with Velti to expand its marketing strategy to mobile, with the objectve to support the launch of the new Honda Insight hybrid in Greece that took place in May,? said Alex Moukas, CEO of Velti, San Francisco. ?Honda wanted to reach a targeted audience of technology-savvy young males open to new trends and new technology, with practically zero exposure to advertising messages.

?The goal was to promote the environmental profile of the new model Honda Insight as well as the overall corporate social responsibility status of the brand,? he said. ?We helped create the first Honda mobile club, a database of mobile consumers that can be used to support future marketing efforts.

?The mobile market in Greece was the ideal environment for Honda to test the expansion of its marketing strategy to the mobile channel.?