Traditional campaign yields big results for a story that almost tells itself

Nissan’s Rear Door Alert is the auto industry’s first system to use sensors to trigger the horn and a message display on the center instrument panel to remind drivers to check the back seat after the vehicle is parked if the sensors determine something has been left behind on the back seat. Designed by two Nissan engineers, both of whom are mothers, the technology is the first-place winner in the “Automotive Campaign” category of Ragan’s 2018 PR Daily Awards.

The campaign to draw attention to the technology—and how it can prevent the kinds of tragic heatstroke incidents reported on the news far too frequently—had three goals: inform the public about the technology and its benefits, emphasize Nissan’s intelligent mobility leadership and make Nissan the first automaker to announce its commitment to a rear seat reminder technology.

The company employed fairly traditional tactics, but did so with exceptional creativity: a multimedia package, videos and b-roll (much of it featuring one of the engineers who developed the system), outreach to the automotive press, influencer coverage via one of the most important of all mommy bloggers, and amplification of the message across mainstream media.

The campaign generated more than 600 print and web articles, with top-tier coverage in outlets like USA Today, CNN and The Wall Street Journal. The VNR and ANR distribution totaled 168 mentions on local TV stations, 310 articles on local broadcast new station websites and 743 mentions on local radio broadcasts.

Congratulations to the Nissan communications team.