Social media: Honda City Weekend Escapade blog.

No more mall-crawling weekends! Go out, explore, discover and rediscover Malaysia! Time to get together with buddies or embrace solitude, Honda City Weekend Escapade blog provides a weekend idea, every week that will exhaust you ;) If you know of a new place or a new old place, do place your comments and direct them to research more.
I don't think it's sufficient to just stuff people's face with information. A brand should always carry some value and more so in these times of accountability, the value needs to be tangible. Honda has always strived to be a company which society wants to exist. Motherhood statement and corporate talk aside, being a team player in the society means everyone needs to contribute. I think this is one value which Malaysians would appreciate. If you're interested to know more about 'travelling' in Malaysia especially to off-the-beaten tracks (say no to touristy unsustainable destinations!), then hit the RSS button. OR follow @HondaMY on Twitter. It'll sound an alert periodically whenever there's a new update, who knows, it may be just the right weekend solution to quell the boredom!

Honda City's 2nd official roadtrip.

Where we convoyed from Bandar Utama to Sungai Pelek to Tanjung Sepat to Sepang Gold Coast. It's cool to see strangers coming together and having fun. Really looking forward to the next trip. If you wanna join us for the next road trip, get posted here.

On a similar but separate note, Honda City's Facebook page has officially spilt over 15,000 fans yesterday! This means re-strategizing. Look out for more good stuff to come ;)

Cheers.

A new look for City's Weekend Escapades.

Can be found here. We're still looking for new ideas to how best deliver content that is user-centric. Especially with the notorious limitation of Facebook. But of course, the more $$$, the limitations become less obvious.

I think it's getting better and better each time, but still could be better ;)

More content for 2009 Honda City FB page.

Posted on 2009 Honda City: Honda City fans cruising in a convoy towards Bukit Tinggi. Song: You & I, by Jason Mraz, played via iPod jack in the Honda City's advanced audio system.

We produced a 'test drive' video of driving in the 5G City during our recent road trip to Bukit Tinggi. It was experimental, utilizing everything the car has to offer, the view, the maneuverability, and yes inclusive the amazing sound produced by the advanced audio system. I thought the video turned out not bad, considering only 1% is edited. Inspires the team to be even more experimental with stuff ;)

On a separate but somehow related note, something got me thinking today. One of the less prioritized situations in our automotive market is the lack of study on how Malaysians are using their car. It isn't surprising to know that the market is largely driven by the 'sports' factor, yet so many still live in 'practical-dom'. So they settle for a vehicle with sporty aesthetics with fair day-to-day power. The price of the investment aside, but what the mass need is a kind of stimulation which will change the way we view 4-wheelers and how they are used. This stimulative need can only be created by a tidal wave of social change that seemingly has nothing to do with the automotive market yet everything to do with spearheading product strategies that will finally (and hopefully) change how local makers perform.

Malaysians in truth, need to get out more. And get out of the congestions of local malls to experience a more fulfilling weekend. When you get out of the urban box, you inevitably search for something that satisfy a different level of driving experience. Whether it's comfort driving, or being able to finally use your paddle shifters or finally utilizing the maximum horsepower that you're beginning to think it's urban legend. It does make sense. Putting people on longer journeys means putting more bums on better seats means putting more enjoyable wheels on the roads means kaching! But yea, that kinda go against the green grain at the moment right? But the argument isn't about encouraging people to drive out more unnecessarily. The idea here is to get them to experience 'quality' driving. To get them out, disperse themselves and explore. This is what I guess we have been trying to achieve with the Honda City. It's an apt car that sits just nicely on the priceline that encourages drivers to go out and discover what's round the bend. A very long and wide bend that is, looking at the destinations and driving itineraries that we've been putting together. Of course, this doesn't have the scale befitting a 'social reform' or even remotely sizeable enough to spark even the most minuscule of change in any kind. However, having said that, I think this is how our local makers can learn from people and their habits to be able to predict trends and capitalize on opportunities instead of remaining stagnant and/or auto-cruising at a speed which is government protected and incentivised. How long more can we remain on the middle lane? How can we change how and where people travel to that could ultimately affect us on so many different levels?

This is the mashed-up results: More quality time doing more meaningful things that better relationships with companions, Malaysians becoming better advocates of their country through exploration and discovery of their beloved (hopefully, spur some patriotism on the way) through the web due to the ever-burgeoning 'need to share' culture sparked by social media, and of course, lastly but of no least, better quality cars at competitive prices that are beyond aesthetics for the people.

Now doesn't that make perfect social, political and economic sense?

Honda City's 1st official roadtrip.

Last weekend was our inaugural Honda City Facebook event. It was a long and tedious process in organising it because it was our first time. But I reckon, the return of learning is so much more than what we've initially set out to achieve. The second time will definitely definitely definitely be a whole lot better (just love troubleshooting stuff ;).

Just wondering how many of these branded communities actually provide these sort of experience? The beauty of social media is to have many unintended by-products after every 'stimulation'. We may set out to achieve something which at the end of the day, realize that we couldn't. Instead achieve something else instead. How does managing the client's expectation come into play here? Where traditional media has always been providing black and white figures and ROI. Even internet advertising. But social media? How do you measure experience? How do you corelate experience with sales? With brand equity? Social media is the new 'priming' method, if you ask me. At least at this point of time, it'll be hell hard to measure anything tangible to revenue and profits. Hmm.

Having said all that. Do check out the page for more exciting photos and videos throughout this entire week and perhaps next. We've got some really interesting test drive shots ;)

Heartfelt thanks to VM, Team City and of course the Dentsu team. Appreciate y'all!