Nissan Motor Co Ltd unveiled last 15th February the first “Intelligent Parking Chair”, a concept product aimed to rise awareness on Nissan’s latest advances on autonomous driving.
The information to the press was launched along with several videos showing how the “well reared” chairs tided theirselfs at a single hand clap from an office worker.
¿Magic like that of Mary Poppins?. No, just smart technology.
I found Nissan’s announcement on 15th February but wanted to know how the concept chair worked in terms on rising awareness on the self parking tech developed by the Japanese automotive brand or even on the brand itself.
And must say it worked really good, both inside and outside Japan. The action has produced for the brand a rich crop in earned media.
Leaving aside japanese and other international media both general and spesialised, the news spread even in Spain,
the country where Eastwind is headquartered.
The video hanging from Nissan’s newsroom You Tube channel became a viral hit just some hours after it was published.
The tech behind the Self Parking chair
Four motion sensitive cameras located in the ceilingcorners of the room tracked regular office chairs on wheels. These cameras, which were wi-fi controlled detected each chair’s location and calculated a route back to the starting point of each chair.
Then the room layout is pre-programmed into the system that controlls the movement of the chairs. Each chair is assigned its own location at the table.
The chairs have been also programed to react to the sounds of a human clap. This sound makes each chair automatically slide back to its starting spot.
The promotional product has been developed by Nissan Marketing Divission in collaboration with the award-winning creative team BIRDMAN.
¿Why an office chair?
Nissan worked with the advertising agency TBWA\HAKUHODO to jointlt think in daily objects able to better trnasmit how useful it is this new technology and how canit dsrupt the ordinary living making it more confortable and easy.
Further than showing in a practical way how the Nissan self parking technology works, the Self Parking Chair, as said by the automotive company, “materializes Nissan’s corporate vision of “enriching people’s lives through technology”, something that goes far beyond the car enthusiastic followers opening the target to any average driver, who uses his/her vehicle frequently or even every day.
A small bite in what Nissan autonomous driving will be
Yuuki Tomii, Nissan Marketing Division said on the self parking technology behin the intelligent chair: “Currently, we are focusing on autonomous parking, and that will lead to autonomous drive developments. In 2016, Piloted Drive 1.0 will be released, and that will allow driving on highways, and is linked to the future of autonomous driving technology.”
The Nissan Self Parking Chair was conceived to rise awarenes on the developments by the Japanese car manufacturer in the field of self parking and autonomus driving. I don’t know if people connect the chair with the cars, but sure that the company increased the awareness on Nissan brand with this marketing product and the help of TBWA/HAKUHODO.
Image over the headline.- Nissan “Intelligent Parking Chair” -the Self parking Chair-. (PRNewsFoto/Nissan Motor Co Ltd.)
Related external links:
Nissan Self-Parking Chair (viral)
Nissan brand experience website
Related Eastwindmarketing links:
Nissan Self parking chair (b-roll video)
Related Eastwindmarketing links (old platform):
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