After dabbling in the PR industry for about 5 plus years, I understand the importance of good communications and good marketing strategies to highlight the product of any company. I’ve seen campaigns ranging from clever to ridiculous and to be honest, I’m not sure which category Nissan falls under.
They are undoubtedly among the top auto manufacturers for intriguing marketing campaigns but this is one I don’ think anyone would have expected.
Now, you may be forgiven for not knowing what a zorb is because I certainly didn’t, nor did I know that using one is referred to ‘zorbing’. But basically zorbing is taking a zorb (which is a large inflatable ball) getting inside and launching it down a hill. This is apparently known as a sport, but it’s clearly just an idea from a five year old trapped in an adult’s body.
Anyway, instead of putting a human being inside, Nissan selected their Versa Note hatchback for the task. Why? Well Nissan is known for a lot of things, but safety isn’t usually mentioned among them when it probably should be. Nissan’s of late are packed with safety tech including lane departure, blind spot monitoring, and moving object detection to name a few. So putting the Versa Note into a zorb seems like a pretty good PR exercise.
First, they had to build a custom zorb measuring about 60 feet around. It apparently weighs a metric ton and was developed at a top secret military training facility in Europe. All this for the 2 minute video you see below. Thoughts?
