Nissan’s Social Media Scavenger Hunt To Promote 2015 Altima

After experiencing success with last year’s “Ride of Your Life” campaign, Nissan has now announced the beginning of “The Altima Chase,” an interactive social media scavenger hunt that aims to take last year’s campaign to a new level of engagement.

The Altima Chase initiative was created to get consumers engaged and excited about the 2015 Altima. The campaign invites people to track down a missing Altima car that was stolen by a fictitious fan known as the “Mastermind.” This past Monday, Altima tweeted and posted a video of the theft.

Over the next three weeks, people can follow the hashtag #AltimaChaseSweeps and solve clues that are posted across Nissan’s and Altima’s social channels, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, for a chance to win the car, in addition to other brand-related gear and cash prizes. Fans can also visit AltimaChase.ChooseNissan.com to follow along.

“Our fans like to have fun,” said Scot Cottick, senior manager of social media marketing at Nissan. “When we can put together a recipe that has a little bit about a product, a little bit of fun, and something that is breakthrough and different, we find that our fans react.”

Cottick explained that Nissan partnered with its social media marketing agency Zocalo Group on this campaign. Madelyn Dow, account director at Zocalo, said that the clues “taunt fans and have a playful tone,” which helps to inspire people to get involved in the game.

For Nissan dealerships, it doesn’t seem that this campaign will have a direct effect, although it’s certainly likely to increase the number of people who are talking about and asking about the 2015 Altima.

“This was intended to support the traditional Ride of Your Life campaign,” explained Rob Robinson, senior specialist of Nissan social communications. “It’s supposed to reflect the look, style, and feel of the campaign, but also bring an element to it that’s naturally social and fits in socially in a way that a traditional campaign may not.”

Additionally, the initiative includes 30 second and 15 second national and cable broadcast spots. As part of Nissan’s ongoing partnership with NBC’s “The Voice,” a special “Ride of Your Life” tie-in will feature interviews with “The Voice” contestants in 11 major media markets.

Nissan’s approach seems to be working well for the company. In March, Nissan was in the top five brands ranked by the percentage of engagement from its social media followers, according to data from SocialRank.