Nissan launched a brand new global brand campaign called “WHAT_IF”, mainly focused on international airports and online features. This campaign will most likely advertise for new Nissan’s model GT-R, with its fastest driver, triple Olympic gold medalist, Usain Bolt.

On Nissan’s official website, they tried to open up the big news with a funny question: “what if the world’s fastest man went even faster?”, being proud of the fact that Bolt himself is one of 21,000 owners of Nissan GT-R. Goal of this campaign is to “highlight iconic product and technologies and to invigorate consumers” through a unique product, making a distinctive global brand. “WHAT_IF” campaign is supposed to boost Nissan’s brand power, and is intended to last until 2016, which means that it will cover the period of both 2012 Olympics in London and 2014 Football World Cup in Brazil.

As a driver of GT-R himself, Bolt argues that “this car gives you chills”. He also noted:

“I was looking on the Internet and I came across the Nissan GT-R, and they (automotive media) were saying it was the best streetcar ever made. Nissan GT-R is a wonderful car and perfect for me. I love everything in it. I enjoy driving it, and I feel completely safe, and that is the key thing for me.”

Last Nissan’s campaign called “SHIFT_” turned out to be fairly successful, but didn’t reach the audience of young multi-cultural groups between 18-29 years of age. However, with this new campaign and a very successful athlete Jamaican in the same age group, it is obvious that they will try to reach this niche.

Only a few months ago, Nissan organized an advertising competition (with American Advertising Federation) that had a goal to get ideas from college students from all over the nation and to hear their ideas on how to reach multi-cultural audience in the age range of 18-29. As a part of this competition, I have personally experienced what it’s like to work on developing a brand. After talking with some of the top managers of Nissan for the Mid-Western region (specifically Michigan, Indiana and Illinois), it was clear to me that they are very dedicated to innovative ideas and new technologies.

Furthermore, on Nissan’s GB official website, they have tried to compare Usain Bolt and Nissan GT-R and connect their similarities. Conclusion is very simple: they are both quite fast and popular among younger audiences.