"Innovation has been the guiding principal at Nissan for nearly a century, and is apparent now more than ever with our current portfolio, including the 100 per cent electric Nissan LEAF, the Juke, the world's first sport-cross vehicle, and a plethora of new advanced safety technologies," says Judy Wheeler, Director of Marketing for Nissan Canada. "This contest further ascertains Nissan's unwavering commitment to offer 'Innovation for All,' and will effectively capture the innovative spirit that exists within Nissan customers and fans across the country."
The first phase of the Innovation Challenge begins with Likers of the Nissan Canada Facebook page (www.facebook.com/nissancanada) submitting a 140-character definition of what innovation means to them in their everyday lives. An expert panel of judges consisting of executives from Nissan Canada, and two of its agencies, TBWA and Cap C, will evaluate the submissions based on the following criteria: clear/concise communication, emotion, and creativity and originality; narrowing down the best 200 entries. Those 200 semi-finalists will then be asked to submit on Facebook, a short, simple video to pitch his or her commercial idea, which connects their representation of 'innovation' to a specific Nissan nameplate.
Nissan Canada will then turn to its Facebook community, asking them to vote on their favourite video submission to assist the judges as they narrow down five finalists. The five finalists will then go to a Toronto studio to pitch their ideas in-person to the judges – a process which will be chronicled on Facebook through two same-day webisodes. After the second webisode, the winner will be announced; the winning spot will be published, and then turned into a national television spot by TBWA.
In addition to the grand prizes, anyone who enters in the first phase, and also those that register to vote are eligible to win Toshiba tablets. The deadline to submit innovation ideas is December 5, 2011. For more information and to register, visit Nissan.ca/innovation
*Excluding the Nissan GT-R and NV.