“Corporate social responsibility” and “crowdsourcing” are so ubiquitous in today’s marketing that even mentioning either term generally elicits more yawning than fawning. Of course, both tactics continue to resonate with consumers, so we can’t completely forget about them either. What to do?
How about shaking things up and spiking them with a bit of creative competition?
Take a peek at Nissan’s “Think outside the parking box” design contest (and yes, please forgive the terribly cheesy name). In a campaign for the Qashqai “urban vehicle,” Nissan held a designboom contest based on the following insight:
Urban parking is in need of a renovation. Ideas must challenge current perceptions
of urban parking and offer a tougher, sleeker, or even playful rendering of it.
Let’s pick this thing apart for a moment.
- Holding the contest is a simple (and relatively inexpensive) way to position the Qashqai as an “urban vehicle,” and taps into a relevant concern for the target audience (as anyone who’s spent 30 minutes scrambling for a downtown parking spot can relate).
- More subtly, the campaign also taps a niche of design-minded artists, engineers, and similarly-oriented thinkers, many of whom presumably live in or around urban areas. Translation: the Qashqai is for “creative” people, and who doesn’t want to be thought of as creative?
- Also, let’s hand it to Nissan for tackling a legitimate social problem in a legitimately interesting manner. Sure, it’s corporate social responsibility, but coming up with an idea that could potentially benefit an entire urban population is certainly more compelling than the standard chuck-a-donation-at-a-charity tactic.
- Finally, kudos for using consumers’ creative energies for a good cause. Nissan’s certainly not the only brand running design contests on designboom, but compared to more narrowly focused competitions about packaging design or cute-but-impractical decorations, Nissan is putting designers’ best attributes to good use.
Thanks to Nimisha Jain for the tip!
