Honda’s Hybrid Buyers Were Found on Food and Culture Content, Not Car Sites.

9,600+

Qualified conversations in two months

Impressions across two campaigns

3.5M

People reached

Across two campaigns for the ZR-V e:HEV and Jazz e:HEV, Ray audience intelligence helped Honda identify where prospective buyers were genuinely engaged, while EchoAI turned the ad into a space where they could ask questions, compare models and explore hybrid technology. The result was more than 9,600 qualified conversations, and a lesson that challenges a basic assumption in automotive media planning: car buyers are not necessarily found in car environments.

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Inside Honda’s conversational hybrid campaigns.

“We learned things we would never have learned from a pre-roll, and that insight feeds directly into our next campaigns.”

Paul Collignon, Director of Marketing, Automobile Division, Honda

The challenge

Going beyond the classic pre-roll for a technology people do not understand

Honda wanted to move past broadcasting a message about its hybrid range and start an actual conversation with consumers. Hybrid powertrains raise practical questions that a thirty-second pre-roll cannot begin to answer.

There was a second, less obvious problem. Reaching car buyers is usually approached by buying automotive content, on the assumption that people interested in cars are found where cars are discussed. That assumption had never really been tested.

The strategy

Audience first, format second

The work did not begin with the format. It began with the audience, which means Ray, Dailymotion’s audience intelligence platform. Ray analyses millions of signals each month from proprietary first-party data to build targeting that is both precise and granular. Before a single impression runs, it already knows the interests of the target audience, so a campaign can find people where they actually spend time. On that foundation Honda activated EchoAI. An AI agent, fed with content supplied by Honda and built directly into the ad format, turned the advertising experience into a personalised dialogue. Viewers did not just watch. They asked how the hybrid powertrain works, compared trims and explored the technology in their own words. Two campaigns ran in sequence. The ZR-V campaign ran from 22 October to 16 November against a custom New Power Generation audience. The Jazz campaign ran from 13 November to 14 December against a custom New Status Seekers audience.

1
Discover with Ray
2
Build custom audiences
3
Activate beyond the obvious context
4
Verify with IAS

5
Learn from the conversations

“Ray powered our most impactful conversational ad yet, unlocking consumer insights that directly fuel our future campaigns.”

Paul Collignon, Director of Marketing, Automobile Division, Honda

The results

Ahead of market benchmarks on every measure that mattered

Together, the two campaigns delivered 8 million impressions, reached 3.5 million people and generated more than 9,600 qualified conversations over two months. Viewers did more than watch: they asked questions, compared models and explored Honda’s hybrid technology. Completion rates reached 78% and 79%, both above benchmark, while IAS measured visibility at 87% and 85%. Those conversations also revealed what prospective buyers wanted to understand. For the ZR-V, hybrid technology and the powertrain accounted for 41% of conversation topics. For the Jazz, Honda SENSING safety technology led at 35%. Most importantly, the campaign challenged where automotive audiences are expected to be found. Honda had expected the strongest engagement around car sites, comparison tools and technical reviews. Instead, the environments generating the most interaction were food, cooking and culture content. The finding suggests that future car buyers cannot be defined by automotive interest alone, and that audience intelligence can reveal them in the places brands least expect.

9,600+

Qualified conversations in two months

Impressions across two campaigns

3.5M

People reached

87% / 85%

Visibility, measured by IAS

Why this matters for automotive marketing

Honda’s campaigns produced a finding that should change how automotive media is planned.

Conversation beats broadcast

The most engaged prospects came from food, cooking and culture content, not car sites. Interest in a category is not the same as living in it.

Conversations are research

9,600 exchanges revealed that hybrid powertrain led at 41% and safety technology at 35%. No pre-roll produces that.

Signals beat assumptions

These environments were not chosen at random. Ray’s signals pointed there, and the results confirmed it.

Key Takeaways

Start with the audience, not the format
Ray identified where to be before anyone chose how to appear.
Question the obvious context
Automotive content is the default, not necessarily the answer.

Treat the ad as a listening device
Question topics feed product strategy, messaging and sales enablement.
Measure conversations, not just completions
9,600 qualified exchanges say more than 8 million impressions.