The first week of May saw Nissan team up with Manchester City FC manager Pep Guardiola to front a campaign for the auto outfit’s new electric Nissan ARIYA.
Launched on 22 April and timed to leverage the vehicle launch and the climax to the English Premier League season – with Guardiola’s City competing with Liverpool FC for the title – the ‘Be More Pep’ campaign suggests that anyone driving the new model can be like the former Barcelona, Bayern Munich and current City boss.
The hero spot’s narrative arc starts with Guardiola driving to work at the Etihad Stadium in his ARIYA: as he passes by everyone and everything acts like Pep – a café manager adopts his motivational tactics, mannequins in the shops are styled like him, passers-by all act in his famous enthusiastic pitch touchline manner and customers in a barber shop even opt to adopt his bald hairstyle.
The ad asks: “Have you ever wanted to be more like Pep Guardiola? Of course you have, everyone has. But he’s more than just a tactical mastermind and football icon, he also drives a Nissan electric vehicle” while the execution seeks to drive viewers online to find out more about the new model at https://www.nissan.co.uk/vehicles/new…
The marketing push was conceived and created by London-based creative agency Dark Horses with Manchester-based production company The Gate Films.
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It was in November 2021 that Nissan renewed its official partnership with City Football Group’s five clubs – refreshing a deal that began back in 2014. While City manager Guardiola has been Nissan ambassador since 2019.
This campaign follows in the footsteps of a March 2020 Nissan Leaf campaign also starring Guardiola, as well as 2021’s ‘Feel Electric’ activation with Nissan’s Formula E team and 2020’s ‘A Little Bit Quick’ spoof spy thriller style campaign for the Nissan Juke.
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