In June, Honda (UK) launched the next phase of its new sponsorship platform for Channel 4 Documentaries with a series of mini documentaries, an online hub, sponsorship idents and a ‘take part’ competition for all Honda owners.  The winner of the competition, and their Honda product, will feature in the concluding part of the campaign.

The first phase of the mini-documentaries featured Philippa, an alpaca breeder in Oxfordshire, who tends to the animals on her farm using her trusty Honda ATV.   This month, the ‘Night Fishing’ films feature fishermen who take their boat out at night off the coast of Brixham to catch their fish in the dark, with luminous lures.  The boat is called ‘Goldfish’ – a Cheetah Marine 9.95m catamaran powered by twin Honda BF135 marine engines.

This latest round of short films, created by Hollie Newton, creative at Wieden + Kennedy London, breaks on 20th July during the documentary ’24 Hours In A&E’ on Channel 4.

Carrying on from last year’s sponsorship campaign – which told stories from within the company – the new brand-led films, which carry the strapline ‘Documentaries on 4, sponsored by Honda’, feature real-life customers who use their Honda products in interesting and unusual ways.  They each carry a unique URL relating to their story which leads viewers to an online hub www.honda.co.uk/stories, designed and created by Collective. People can view the documentaries in full on the site, as well as a range of films, articles, and other interesting stories featuring Honda owners and their vehicles.

The ‘Take Part’ competition has been devised to encourage Honda owners to upload stories and photographs about the surprising ways they use their Honda products.  The favourite, as chosen by Honda and Wieden + Kennedy, will then be turned into the final mini-documentary, featured on TV as idents, concluding the campaign.

Martin Moll, Head of Marketing at Honda (UK) said, ‘”I am very excited that our continued relationship sponsoring Channel 4 documentaries allows us to focus on our customers, highlighting their warm – sometimes quirky – personal experiences of Honda products either for fun or as a necessary part of their daily livelihood.  We hope that this campaign will unveil further examples from our customers, one of which will be nominated to be brought to life on TV for a final set of idents later on in the year”

Chris Groom and Sam Heath, Creative Directors, Wieden + Kennedy said, “We knew there were all sorts of people using all sorts of Honda products in extraordinary ways. A documentary format provided the perfect platform to celebrate them.”

The next wave of creative ‘Blood Bikes’ breaks in September.

The interactive phase of NESTEA’s ‘The Start Of Something Different’ campaign launches globally this week.  The new work continues to position the NESTEA brand and its unique, refreshing blend of tea and fruit flavours as a catalyst for the start of new, unexpected and exciting possibilities.  This includes a new global website, the first phase of which launches in Canada first, at www.mynestea.ca, created by Wieden + Kennedy and Amautalab. The global site will act as a central hub of information which will be localised for each NESTEA market.  It will tell the story of the brand and offers information about all NESTEA products – as well as housing the appropriate current campaign for its local market. 

W+K has also developed the ‘Start-O-Matic’ Facebook application in co-operation with the NESTEA brand team and other external partners. The app continues to play on the idea of NESTEA empowering consumers to embrace something new.  Whether it be learning to scuba dive, taking a photography course or learning to fly a plane, the Start-O-Matic provides the means for people to quickly and easily generate a film made up of video, photographs or written messages, that will live on the profile page of the friend they are hoping to galvanise into action and go after their dreams.  The films can be customised from one of four ‘themes’ – including ‘TV Show Starring You and Your Friends’, ‘Dance In The Sky’, ‘Anything Is Possible’ and ‘Kickstart’ – another playful element to help motivate people to take initiative, and take action.

W+K Interactive Creative Director Andy Cameron said, ‘We don’t just want to tell people how exciting it can be to make a fresh start; we want to inspire them to get on and do it for themselves. The Start-O-Matic Facebook app offers people a way to use social networks to playfully suggest their friends start something different. Ultimately it’s about the awesome power of integrating great storytelling with compelling social and interactive engagements in new ways.’