Nissan Cube is Anything But Boring

So it’s been a week now driving the Nissan Cube and I gotta say: People really love this car or really hate it - there’s no in between. This of course means that the Nissan Cube fits in the perfect category of “anything-but-boring.” Its definitely a car that invokes emotion.

And for this reason alone the Nissan Cube is a lot of fun to drive around town in. The expressions of passers-by are priceless.

A family pulled up beside us at a light last night on our way back from a day at the beach and the two little girls in the back were pointing and giggling their heads off. Who knows if they were laughing from the giddiness of seeing something other than a white/red/black sedan/SUV/truck/van on the road or if they thought the Cube was the silliest thing they’d seen in their lives.

Either way, they’ll remember it and it brightened up their day to see something a little outside the norm.

Oh, and the Cube’s sweet sound system was doing Leonard Cohen Live in London some sweet justice on that ride back from the beach.

Drum roll please…. Nissan Cube’ed Me!

I’m willing to go out on a limb here and say that I just had the greatest June 23rd I have ever had in my life to this point.

It’s not everyday - or July 23rd for that matter - that you win a brand spankin’ new car! And a very cool fully teched out one at that! (apologies ahead of time but there will be an overuse of exclamation marks in this post). So for those of you who I didn’t phone or tweet or email or Facebook yet, I was chosen as one of the 50 Canadians to win a brand new Nissan Cube car in their online HyperCube contest.

First off, the much deserved thank yous. To my wife Bree and my daughters Taryn and Zoe, you were awesome and your enthusiasm is what made me push through long nights of video editing. To my parents who pushed all of their friends to vote - spending hours convincing them that their email address was not going to used for nefarious spamming when they submit it to register their vote. To my colleagues at Hoggan and Associates who were the victims of inoffice spam tactics cajoling them to vote. And to all my friends, colleagues and Twitter pals for pushing hard on the social networks for getting the word out - there is way too many to count, but I can tell you right now, there will be much online karma coming your way over the next while.

If it wasn’t for you all, I would still be rolling in the 1984 VW Rabbit (have I mentioned that it has over 318,000 km’s on it?).

And of course, thank you Nissan for the willingness to use the power of word of mouth and social media instead of feeding into the top-down mindshare approach of traditional advertising. I think you’ll agree that the power of the social networks is way more powerful and genuine than an ad running during Gossip Girl. And congrats to Capital C for your creativity.

So I guess the next step is to pick up this bad boy, which apparently has already been nicknamed Den Master Chris by JennMae.

Going ahead, there’s a few things I want to do. Obviously, I’m going to maintain this site and post on all things Nissan Cube for the next year. I’m also planning on doing a case study on the contest, documenting my own experiences as an actual participant and what it all means for the art of Word of Mouth marketing - after all, I do run the New Media division of one of the coolest PR firms on the West Coast!

I’m also going to write a post later today to share with the rather hilarious story of how I learned that I won the car last night.

How to get tons of votes online and win a shiny new car

Well, this is the last of the videos I’ve produced for the Nissan HyperCube contest, hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it!

Here’s the other videos I produced for the HyperCube contest - my favorite (and the easiest to produce) is still the German Cube Dance:

Nissan Hyper Cube Dance Off

Nissan Cube TV: Daddy Loses it! (this one took an entire day, but it was a lot of fun, especially for the kids)

I would never kill a baby seal!

Ashton - kindly tweet this please (he never did, grrrrr…)

The Nissan Hyper Cube Uber Social Media Marketing Plan

My Nissan Hyper Cube Facebook group

I started a page on Facebook as part of my quest to win one of 50 Nissan Cubes in the Nissan Hyper Cube contest.

If you’re a Facebooker (who isn’t these days), would be cool if you joined the group and show your support, I just started it so its kind of lonely at the moment!

You can click here to go to my Hey Nissan! Hyper Cube Me! facebook group.

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My Super Social Media Marketing plan for the Nissan Cube

Here’s my latest video for the Nissan Hyper Cube Car contest - I had a lot of fun making this one.

If you have a minute it would be great if you could vote for me.

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The Nissan Hyper Cube Dance - huge hit in Germany

I’m doing a lot of research on the history of the Nissan Cube car now that I’m a finalist in the Nissan Hyper Cube contest. I’m finding the most amazing little factoids.

Did you know that there’s actually a Hyper Cube dance? I won’t blame you if you don’t it’s not that well known here in Canada, but it is a HUGE in the EU, especially Germany.

Check it out:

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Nissan Cube Saves Baby Whale

A touching moment between nature and car

VANCOUVER - In a story usually only seen in Hollywood, a Nissan Cube saved a baby whale off the coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.

Coast Guard received a call from a local whale watching tour operator at 9:34 am yesterday that a Gray whale calf at 9:34 am yesterday that a Gray whale calf appeared to have been separated from its mother in a storm the night before. Coast Guard ship Captain, Neil McKredulous gave us exclusive details on how the story unfolded and the dramatic rescue.

“When we got the call about the little fella’ we tried our best to get a vessel out to take a look right away, but unfortunately all our ships were at a press conference photo op on the Saint Lawrence with the Prime Minister,” says McKredulous.

Without a boat, McKredulous and his crew had all but given up hope of a rescue when they received a call from a Nissan Cube reporting that it had spotted the baby Gray whale. “We get this call from a friggin’ car calling itself the ‘Nissan Cube’ telling us it’s in a friggin’ rowboat and its managed to lasso the baby whale and take it back to its mother. We thought it was a prank, until we saw the picture.”

The picture was taken by local fisherman Charles Carraway who witnessed the touching moment when the Nissan Cube and the Gray whale said goodbye for the last. “A very touching moment between nature and car,” commented Carraway.