Who Loves a Honda: Facebook

I came across what appears to be a fairly new development in television advertising. It's the first time I've seen it anyway. 

For years now advertisers have promoted their website URL in TV spots, usually at the end. However, at the end of this TV spot from Honda they display their Facebook page URL http://www.facebook.com/Honda which lands you on their "Wall" page (mistake #1 - more on that later). 

The TV spot is built around the idea that "everybody knows somebody who loves a honda". Going to their Facebook page, if you click the tab labelled "The Experiment" (mistake #2) Honda invites you to 'help us prove it' by loading their app and indicating that you love a Honda, or by inviting a friend who loves their honda to join.

If the person you invited joins, it increases your "love factor" and the app displays your love connections. The game continues by enabling Honda lovers to indicate what else they love (bands, TV shows, hobbies, etc). A tag cloud displays all the different things Honda lovers love so you can compare your interests with that of other Honda (Element) lovers, for example.  

Kind of fun if you're into Facebook apps and have a few minutes to burn. What it does for Honda:

• the most obvious is it builds their Facebook fan base. They've gone from about 160K fans in Oct '09 when the TV spot came out to almost 300k fans today.
• brand engagement & building: I just spent 10 minutes engaged with the brand and I neither own a Honda nor like Facebook apps. 
• increases awareness of their product line-up. I didn't realize they had so many models

Another brilliant tactic on their Facebook page are the Polls. For example, 120,208 people have taken the "Do you know somebody that loves a Honda" poll. 

I mentioned above a couple of mistakes they made. Here's what I would have done to make a great campaign even better:

1. Since the focus of their TV spot is "Do you know somebody who loves a Honda" and ends with the Facebook URL, why not drop them right on that tab of the Facebook page rather than the Wall where the visitor then needs to figure out how to find the app. Which leads to mistake #2. 
2. They labelled the tab "The Experiment". What? There's no mention of an experiment anywhere in the TV spot. Why not call it a shortened variation of "Do you know..." e.g. "Do You Love a Honda" etc.

This would optimize their $ million+ dollar media buy by driving maximum traffic directly to the right app and extending the TV spot theme.

These tips and more are available in How to Attract 3,000 Facebook Fans in 30 Days, The Ultimate Facebook Pages