Honda launches online gardening competition to highlight driving system

The campaign, designed by Honda's digital creative agency Collective, is aiming to highlight the Insight's eco driver assist system, which features a dashboard display with five "plants" that grow the more efficiently you drive.

From April 2, competitors will be encouraged to look after five real plants from bulb to full bloom, though they will not actually have the plants in their personal care because they are based in a remote location.

Instead they have to complete daily challenges to ensure the plants are nurtured. A live greenhouse webcam will keep entrants updated on how their plants are developing.

The person with the first five plants to bloom fully (as determined by an independent botanist)  will win a £10,000 prize to split equally between an environmentally-friendly holiday and a registered charity of their choice.

Every player will receive a unique combination of five plants allocated from a pool of 24 plants, all of which represent a Honda environmental achievement -- from the ecologically friendly CVCC engine developed in 1971 to the zero emission FCX Clarity, the world's first production fuel cell vehicle.

Greg Doone, managing director of Collective, said: "We were keen to design a campaign that would tell the Insight story in an engaging way, within the context of Honda's other ground-breaking environmental achievements.

"The Honda eco driver assist system along with its iconic dashboard display gave us a perfect campaign theme, enabling us to develop a competition based on the actual growing and flowering of plants that we hope will keep users coming back."

The campaign creative will be featured on Honda's website.

Jonny Freeman, digital marketing manager of Honda UK, said: "Good to Grow is a fantastically optimistic way of having some fun whilst promoting the environmental benefits of the new Insight.

"We're hoping people will log on and nurture the plants and maybe even take a test a drive of the new car."