Nissan was the first company to commercialise the announcement that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their second child. The tweet was posted super fast, only a mere seven minutes after the royal announcement.
The ad not only hitches onto a very recent event, it also stays relevant to the product being promoted. The advert comically shows that the new Nissan X-Trail is spacious enough for the increasing royal family- an image many Europeans would be happy to be associated with.
As claimed by Adweek, this is about as real time as marketing gets. But this campaign wasn’t quickly thrown together and shipped out within seven minutes. Instead, this campaign required months of strategising, planning and waiting. Ever since the baby rumours started in July, David Parkinson head of social for Nissan in Europe had overseen this campaign and held it in his back pocket. It was designed to be proactive rather than just reactive as most following royal baby news advertisements.
Most of the tweets reception focused around how timely it was. However some people have responded negatively, as expected, criticising the commercialisation. At least it’s not as distasteful as hitching onto a charity campaign for marketing intents. Even though most comments have been about the messages context rather than the message itself, the publicity and applause generated from this tweet makes it all worthwhile.