The new Honda Jazz launches across Europe from 1st February 2011. To support this Wieden + Kennedy has created a pan-European campaign that also launches on 1st February in the UK and will then roll out across 29 markets in total throughout the month.

The new Honda Jazz launches across Europe from 1^st February 2011. To support this we have created a pan-European campaign that also launches on 1^st February in the UK and will then roll out across 29 markets in total throughout the month.

As is often the case with our Honda work, the spark for the idea came from something that was said by one of the people behind the vehicle.

Those words inspired this positioning thought:

Which in turn led us to the creation of the 60” animated TV spot that supports the Jazz launch. ‘This Unpredictable Life’ glorifies the epic challenge of trying to engineer a car that predicts everything life will throw at you. It’s a reflection of the wonderful and unpredictable journey of life’s twists, turns, ups and downs – as we follow a character floating through life in an animated world.  We see his journey from birth through to growing up and starting a family of his own, collecting experiences and possessions along the way: demonstrating the Jazz’s ability to handle all that life has to throw at the modern family.

The spot was directed by Smith and Foulkes at Nexus, the same team with whom we worked on the Honda Grrr commercial that was named 'best commercial of the decade' by Adweek. They say:

‘The team at Wieden + Kennedy asked us to visually interpret their beautifully poetic script, a fantastic opportunity of endless possibilities that doesn’t come along very often.  How can you encapsulate the unpredictable randomness of growing up, falling in love and starting a family in 60 seconds?  Our simple plan centred the story on a hero who would encounter all manner of epic silliness as he navigates his way through the different stages of his life.’ 

The film is supported by a print campaign:

We have also created, in conjunction with Gravity Mobile, a ground-breaking digital app that introduces the ability to ‘play’ with a television commercial using a mobile phone.The app is available to download free from the iTunes store now.

The app allows viewers of the film to ‘catch’ the  animated characters as the commercial appears on screen. It's the first time this sound-synching technology has ever been used in a commercial.  Here's a wee film showing how the app works: