Nissan’s objectives were clear: increase brand awareness and improve purchase consideration for their SUV lineup, including the Rogue, Frontier, and Kicks. Amid a competitive 2024 market, Donut’s creative approach helped Nissan stand out, driving both awareness and engagement while meeting aggressive retail goals. The campaign’s success has not only strengthened Nissan’s market position but also reinforced Donut’s ability to deliver high-performing, innovative branded content. The main objectives were to create engaging branded campaigns that delivered impressions and resonated with Donut’s audience. Specifically, Nissan tasked Donut with increasing brand awareness and improving purchasing consideration among potential consumers. The team was asked to put a heavier emphasis on Nissan’s SUV products in the pipeline, specifically the Rogue and Frontier, and the Kicks later in 2024. They were combatting multiple products launched by competitors in 2024 and leaned on Donut to help Nissan stand out, drive awareness, and meet aggressive retail goals. Additionally, Nissan chose to partner with Donut because the audience is a younger demographic and Donut was tasked with authentically connecting this audience with their products. Over the past two years, Donut and Nissan have built a collaborative and trusted relationship between Donut's creative team and Nissan's marketing and sales teams. Donut's award-winning ASMcaR campaign last year laid the foundation for this year’s new set of freshly crafted objectives and an even stronger campaign focused on successful SUV-focused initiatives.
In 2024, Nissan again entrusted the nation’s leading automotive entertainment content company, Donut Media, to strategize authentic, engaging branded content that would resonate with Donut’s audience of car enthusiasts and amateurs alike–effectively communicating key brand messages. This year, Donut’s creative team elected to produce a coherent campaign incorporating three distinct campaign styles. Each weaved together Donut’s mission of entertaining car fanatics through accessible education and humor with Nissan's key messaging. A standout was our Dungeons & Dragons parody featuring the Nissan Rogue, complemented by a more traditional approach to advertising via an off-roading feature with Donut's Editor-in-Chief behind the wheel of the Nissan Frontier. The third video married Donut’s creative style with classic car commercial elements as two hosts explored Nashville in the Nissan Kicks.
The results speak for themselves. In addition to retaining Nissan as an annual client partner, Donut’s campaign exceeded performance benchmarks across all channels. The mid-roll ads for this campaign generated nearly 9M views alone, while the campaign as a whole amassed 131M social impressions and 5.8M pre-roll views. The most successful content, however, was the Dungeons & Dragons video, which alone garnered 4.8M views on YouTube—becoming the campaign's most impactful piece with our audience.
Nissan x SUV [Q2 2024 Program]
Nissan x Kicks [Q4 2024 Program]
