TNT’s “A dramatic surprise on an ice-cold day” meets Pepsi MAX’s “Jeff Gordon test drive prank” in this latest test drive video for the all new Renault Clio.
In the video a couple of guys are seen taking the Renault Clio for a spin. After a regular beginning, the salesman shows of the “va va voom” button, which initiates a romantic scene between a couple set against the Eiffel Tower and then…
And here is a version for the ladies…
To launch the new generation i30 in South Africa, Hyundai reinvented the test drive with the Hyundai i30 Light Drive. It is a virtual racing game projected onto the i30’s front windscreen, played from inside the car.
Instead of waiting for people to visit a dealership, Hyundai took the experience to South Africa’s hottest nightspots in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. Anyone, at any time, could step in, experience the car’s slick dynamic features, and compete for the top spot on the leader board.
The mechanism is smart because the “drive” is no longer a polite sales ritual. It is a game with stakes, progress, and a score. Two-man teams work together on the track to collect icons. Each icon represents an i30 specification, and collecting them powers up the car and boosts the team’s score.
That turns feature education into gameplay. Specs are not listed. They are earned. The i30’s story is embedded in the rules of the experience.
In experiential automotive launches, product education lands best when features are translated into gameplay mechanics that people can learn by doing.
Nightspots are where people are already in a social, competitive mood. A leader board gives instant status. A queue becomes part of the atmosphere rather than a frustration, because everyone can watch and anticipate their turn.
Hyundai amplified that social energy with HD cameras streaming the live test drive to a large screen outside the car. The crowd can watch the teams compete in real time, which makes the experience feel bigger than the physical footprint of the vehicle.
Hyundai linked the i30 Light Drive to Facebook Connect, turning participation into a shareable identity moment. Photos of the teams are posted instantly onto their timelines, extending the experience beyond the venue and turning “I played” into “I was seen playing”.
Even the waiting time is engineered. People queuing to play are educated and entertained with a touch screen brochure on the i30’s rear windscreen. It is product information, but delivered in an interactive format that matches the energy of the activation.
The business intent is clear. Hyundai wants the i30 to feel like the next generation. Not just in features, but in attitude. By turning a test drive into an interactive spectacle, the brand signals innovation, tech confidence, and social relevance. The car becomes an event.
It is an in-car virtual racing game projected onto the i30’s windscreen, designed to turn a test drive into an interactive competition.
Teams collect icons on the track that represent i30 specifications. Those icons act as power-ups, so the specs become part of the game’s reward loop.
Nightlife venues provide a ready-made social crowd. Competition and spectacle fit the context, and the experience spreads through observation and sharing.
HD cameras stream the gameplay to a large screen outside, turning players into performers and the crowd into an audience, which increases participation and energy.
Design an experience that people want to play and watch. When product education is embedded inside a compelling interaction loop, attention follows naturally.
There was a time when people would go to the dealership to research cars. But now most research (70%) is done online, with 50% of buyers stating that online information was the most influential part of their research.
So Nissan decided to bring their dealership to the online audience through a custom YouTube Channel experience.
And for people on the go using smartphones for research, they also created a first of its kind custom mobile YouTube Channel, where they replicated the desktop experience for smaller screens.
As a result Nissan is said to have received an extremely positive response, along with a significant increase in people looking for their dealership after researching.
What makes this interesting is not that Nissan published more videos. It is that the channel itself is treated like product UI. Instead of forcing viewers to hunt through a generic grid, the experience is designed to guide shopper intent from model discovery to feature deep-dives, then onward to the next step in the buying journey.
A “virtual showroom” in this sense is a structured video experience that lets a buyer explore models, features, and trims in a self-directed way, without sales pressure, and without leaving the environment where they are already doing research.
In automotive marketing, the research screen becomes the showroom. So the channel needs to behave like a product experience, not a playlist.
The psychology is simple. When someone is researching a car, they want control. They want to compare, replay, and go deep only on the features they care about. A channel-built showroom supports that viewer control, and it keeps momentum high because the buyer never has to “leave to learn” and then try to find their way back.
This is also why the mobile extension matters. In the moments where you spot a car on the street, see an ad, or get a recommendation from a friend, you can immediately jump into a structured product view rather than starting from scratch with a search query.
Nissan is said to have received an extremely positive response, along with a significant increase in people looking for their dealership after researching. The strategic bet is clear. If you can keep the research experience coherent and confidence-building, you increase the odds that the next action is dealership search, a test drive, or a shortlist decision, rather than another brand’s video.
A virtual showroom is a structured video experience that helps shoppers explore products like they would in-store, with clear pathways from model overview to feature details, without relying on a salesperson or a separate site.
Because that is where research attention already lives. Keeping the experience native reduces friction, preserves intent, and lets buyers move from curiosity to confidence without context-switching.
It is not just playback on a phone. It is an interface designed for mobile decision-making, where browsing, comparing, and drilling into details still feels coherent on a smaller screen.
By making the buyer feel informed and in control. When research is easy and confidence increases, dealer search and test drive intent tend to follow naturally as the next step.
You need a library that covers the full set of buyer questions. Walk-throughs, feature explainers, comparisons, and proof points that can be consumed in any order depending on what the shopper cares about.
Track signals that reflect progression in the funnel, such as deeper feature engagement, repeat visits, branded search lift, and increases in dealer-locator usage or dealership queries following content exposure.
