Rating:

Assessment:This is an exceptionally well executed campaign through which Mazda ingeniously taps into the youth market and establishes a brand relationship very early in the consumer lifecycle. The site’s user experience speaks to the brand’s performance and interactive Flash games promote product recognition on the road while showcasing interior vehicle styling. Pitting universities against one another using the leaderboard as a bragging rights platform provides an excellent viral mechanism. And the Rockin’ Roll Call band contest cleverly jump-starts the experience.

Rating:

Assessment: Mazda wants to target college students, do something viral and is willing to go edgy and off-brand to do it — what happened??? What could have been a killer campaign becomes standard issue — a game, music downloads, send to a friend. The visuals skew way too young with crumpled paper, graffiti, a paper clip (dear God, not the paper clip)! The truly compelling content gets lost and the game itself is boring. It just doesn’t make me want to send it to my BFF [best friends forever].

Rating:

Assessment: Beautiful and pointless. Is it a game, a contest, a grad program, or an indie music scene? It’s many great ideas that don’t go deep enough into the brand. After enjoying nearly an hour on the site, playing and listening to interesting music, I never got a feel for the car, nor did I take away anything compelling me to find out more. Campusjoyride.ca gets distracted and forgets what it is: a site for students to re-consider Mazda.