Reflections on “Helpful Honda Guy” Campaign

I couldn’t recall when and where I saw the first series of the “Helpful Honda Guy” commercial, but it immediately left a positive impression in my mind. “Integration” is the first word that comes up to me when thinking of those commercials. Although the commercials run with different story lines, they share the same core idea. The main character of the commercials is always a male Honda staff dressing in their iconic blue shirt, chitchatting with client about daily stuff, helping a random customers with an urgent task that just turns up from nowhere. Instead of a bland story of how helpful the Honda guy is, the commercial always has a torch of humor by giving the commercial an unexpected ending, like what is shown in the following video clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kPvF2DjxC4

Several months ago, I had to purchase a new car for myself. I wasn’t exposed to the Honda commercials anymore, but when I passed by its downtown LA dealership store, the commercial was the thing that pushed me into the store. Through lectures, I’ve been told that an integrated marketing communication should be consistent in message crafting across the media, but from my experience in the Honda dealership, the brand does lands this “integration” to the real life. The extremely warm greetings from every one working in the store, not only the sales manager that handles your deal, the sometimes seemingly theatrical smile from receptionist, sales, financial managers, even mechanics, all reminded me of the “Helpful Honda Guy” concept in the commercial. Maybe a lot of brands can do a good job in external marketing communications, but this brand definitely has got an excellent internal communications. Though astonished by those dramatic hospitality at first, I was impressed by this experience.

So as you may imagine, I tied a deal with the downtown Honda dealership eventually. Then I scratched a little bit deeper into the campaign. It turned out this “Helpful Honda Guy” campaign is really an “enduring” event that has been on for 7 years. Can you imagine? Seven years! For the exact same massage! The second thing strikes me is that this campaign is actually a regional campaign that is only available in Southern California area. Due to the geographic limit, this campaign was forced to intermit during the past seven years for lack of financial support from the corporate headquarter. Fortunately, it finally got back on radar again. Additionally, it just released a new set of holiday seasonal commercials that are also moderately interesting, well-integrated with the brand’s ultimate goal for marketing communications: selling cars. Well, I know I sound like a promoter for Honda, but in fact, I’m just a fan of these commercials, and of course, Honda cars, lol. So enjoy the holiday commercial here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbn_Frg7P6c&index=2&list=PLbHLm33KeT0vdva3LwWJsxHRxbZ4xa3l8

Reference

http://www.rohitbhargava.com/2014/07/the-underappreciated-brilliance-of-the-helpful-honda-campaign.html