MANILA, PHILIPPINES– Homonym’s latest campaign for Nissan Philippines answers the question, “How do you stay creative during the quarantine?” featuring musicians Zsaris and Barbie Almalbis.
Using everything that comes with the Nissan X-Trail including honking horns, turn signals, shutting doors and car hoods, doorlocks, footbrakes, and even just tapping on the seats, they proceed to do an updated version of Barbie’s tune from band Barbie’s Cradle, the 2007 hit “Money For Food.”
“As we are all going through these challenging times, we felt there was a need to inspire creativity and inject positivity into our situation by doing the fun experiment with the Nissan X-Trail,” said Nissan Philippines in an invterview.
“We wanted to excite the market again, by showcasing the different innovations that can be explored while we all stay at home to stay safe by using the vehicle in the most unconventional way possible,” they added.
For their part, Homonym Founder and President Mike Constantino bared that their collaboration had to go back to the drawing board because the lockdown rendered their original concept impossible to make.
“Actually the original concept we had planned with EON and the artists was to use the unique sounds found in the Nissan X-Trail and in Nissan’s Intelligent Mobility and use it to perform live in their BGC showroom,” Mike shares.
The shoot had to be cancelled a day before it was supposed to happen because of the general community quarantine that was imposed on Metro Manila.
“Our friends from EON approached us and asked if we could help them come up with a campaign that marries music with cars,” Mike says. “Being the only music agency in the Philippines, we were excited to take on this project and are grateful to both Nissan and EON that they chose Homonym as their partner to come up with a creative idea.”
“Through our research on music psychology and a process we call Sonic Identity and Strategy, we narrowed down the artist options to Barbie and Zsaris as they perfectly fit the Nissan X-Trail’s target market as well as the execution of the idea,” Mike adds.
“We had found that our target audience are big fans of Barbie and her songs since they were released around the time their music personalities were being shaped,” according to Nissan. “With the interesting sounds of the Nissan X-Trail and Nissan Intelligent Mobility, we reached out to Zsaris to play around with the songs of the car to create the beautiful arrangement for the recreated version of ‘Money For Food.’”
The ensuing collaboration between Barbie and Zsaris was a fresh yet familiar take on the tune from the “Music from the Buffet Table” album of Barbie’s Cradle.
“As the world goes through this challenging period, staying creative has become an integral to get by as we stay home to stay safe,” Nissan remarks. “It allows us to move beyond and think outside the box to pull inspiration from unconventional tools and items, like the Nissan X-Trail to create bold innovations even in tough situations.”
“Creativity is a way for us to transform situations and break away from the norm to provide solutions or even just bring back the fun and positivity,” Mike notes.
“There is a saying that creativity is born out of the challenges and limitations set by circumstance,” he adds. “We think this project was a testament to that statement and we’re grateful to have launched this campaign with a great team.”
