A campaign for automaker Nissan by Spark Foundry and In the Company of Huskies has won the ADFX Grand Prix, Ireland’s premier advertising effectiveness award.

The ADFX awards, held every two years by the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (IAPI), were presented at an event in Dublin last night. 

The Grand Prix-winning campaign for the redesigned Nissan Micra ditched the model’s European campaign assets in order to come up with a specifically Irish angle aimed at turning a generation of brand rejecters into brand supporters.

This was based on the understanding that the automotive industry has long been criticised for the homogeneity of its advertising while self-expression is important for the target audience who believe their car expresses their personality.

So a bold creative platform was developed: the No more nice car campaign showed the “defiant” personality of the new Micra through a short film that was inspired by people’s old attitudes and how these preconceptions resulted in it being prematurely judged.

Nissan increased the sales of its Nissan Micra by 106% in launch year, doubling its share of the small car segment to 10% and constituting 6% of Nissan’s overall sales.

Sourced from IAPI; additional content by WARC staff