Nissan Pitch Tailored to Fit Urban Youth

Nissan Motor Co.’s U.S. operating arm has launched a new marketing campaign that blends music, “reality” TV, radio and seemingly outlaw behavior in a bid to capture the attention of young American urban car buyers.

Gardena-based Nissan North America Inc. has hired former Quincy Jones-David Salzman Entertainment marketing strategist Jonathon Cropper, 32, to head the campaign.

Cropper, Nissan’s senior manager for youth and urban communications, describes the new ad campaign as a nontraditional effort to sell to the under-30 market.

“When it comes to speaking to youth culture and multicultural youth in urban environments, traditional 30-second TV and radio ads just aren’t the way,” Cropper said.

The auto companies most successful in winning young buyers have been Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Volkswagen. But Nissan is running a close third and says its popular Altima sedan is the wedge with which it can drive into the youth arena.

The initial campaign centers on a heavily African American and Latino market because those urban youths now account for 26% of Altima buyers, Cropper said.

Concentrating on an urban ethnic segment is a good idea, said auto marketing consultant Dan Gorrell, vice president of San Diego-based Strategic Vision Inc.

“The youth market isn’t homogenous. They are not all the same people, and a lot of car companies forget this.”

Nissan’s campaign focuses on bringing the product to the people, with a 159-event, 10-city cross-country tour that will begin July 30 in Chicago.

The company has turned a highly customized Altima into a mobile broadcast and projection studio. A spokeswoman, identified as MC, will bring the car to selected urban venues, play music and interview audience members in the back seat of the car, projecting segments of the interview live from within the car.

MC also will play to her audience’s rebellious nature by “hacking” into conventional Altima radio advertisements being broadcast in the target cities on popular urban stations. The ads will be interrupted by a staticky “pirate” message from MC, Cropper said.

“She says she’s broadcasting from the trunk of her Altima and then tells a road story from her tour.”

Cropper has also worked for MTV Networks and advised companies including BMW of North America Inc. and Nissan ad firm TWBA/Chiat/Day about trends in youth culture.