Most people call a trusted car enthusiast to guide them through the vast tundras of the North American auto marketplace. And auto companies know it. Three new interactive campaigns count on pre-existing niche groups to spread the word for them.

Nissan noticed an incredible marketing opportunity in self-identified "tuners" - import compact enthusiasts who accessorize, customize, and generally pimp-out saucy racer models from Japan. The young male tuners, predominantly of Asian descent, are also living, breathing advertisements awash in logos and stickers.

Instead of co-opting values from the culture that's grown around Nissan's import cars in the US, TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles, contributed to it. As Rob Schwartz, executive creative director puts it, "Our job was to get out of the way or build the momentum."

They went for momentum. The 2002 SE-R Spec V is the first car to hit North American soil that bears any resemblance to the now-mythic Nissan Skyline, released only in Japan in the 1980s. The product launch will comprise four print ads and an interactive CD-Rom featuring a four-minute original animé flick, music, and information about the car. Almost a million CDs were distributed in flourishing tuner publications and core male lifestyle magazines.

"These guys are for real, and they influence the general purchase of cars," says Schwartz, who compiled a thorough ethnography while crafting the campaign. Conscious allegiance to the dark, serious animé style (co-produced by Celluloid, LA, Vinton Studios, Portland and Rhythm & Hues, LA) in Master of the Sixth Speed built credibility and authenticity for the brand while reinforcing an already strong fan base.

Pentamark in Detroit took a similar route, producing a game for the new Jeep Wrangler Rubicon to appeal to video game players and hardcore off-road enthusiasts alike.

After JD Power and Forrester Research showed Jeep was the highest domestic brand to attract customers online, Jeep released a Web-based driving game to advertise the new vehicle. Texan gamemakers Terminal Reality were commissioned to produce a scaled-down version of Evo 4x4.

Subsequently Jeep 4x4 EVO2 was released to pre-existing Evo players. Through a partnership with graphic video card maker Mvidea, 1 million graphic card owners got e-mails about the game. A CD-Rom was mailed to 25,000 households via the United 4 Wheel Drive Association, the largest off-road group in the USA.

"There's a following for this game, so immediately we captured that crowd. And we've captured the off-roading community because they're interested in the Rubicon and can't wait to drive it," says Joel Schlader, Jeep CRM specialist at Daimler-Chrysler. Schlader claims the project budget was well under a million dollars.

True to its mission, the game has taken on a life of its own. Web sites and billboards are popping up and people are hearing about the game. Traffic on www.jeep.com increased by nearly 85,000 in the first three weeks.

Web traffic is exactly what Miami's Crispin, Porter + Bogusky wanted for the BMW mini launch in America.

Given a relatively tight budget (estimated at $20 million US), Crispin, Porter + Bogusky unleashed 6.3 million quirky print inserts, bought up the unused white space in the editorial margins of lifestyle magazines, pulled stunts like mounting a Mini on top of a Ford SUV and driving through major cities, and printed billboards with no product shot. All directing the curious to www.miniusa.com.

"Demographics for Mini are not really relevant," says BMW marcom manager Kerri Martin, "because it really ranges from 16 to 60. It's difficult to find demographic relevance, but you can find a mindset. These are people who have a great appreciation for design and style, they're confident but not cocky, successful, but on his or her own terms. They love to discover things on their own and they don't like to be hit on the head with marketing messages."

While outdoor advertising targets the kind of people Mini expects to sell to, Mini is actually advertising a Web site made for a general audience.

Interestingly, all three sites are virtually identical, with product information at the fore. It takes some digging to find even a trace of Japanimation online. Ditto for Jeep; video game. In fact, if you're not already an Evo player, good luck getting started with the game at all. Downloads can take up to six hours, intense graphic cards are required and registration is your typical data-mining process.

Despite glitches inherent in breaking new ground, nurturing peer-to-peer marketing on a large scale makes economic sense. Pushing product to people who care builds credibility, which car brands are looking for more than anything else.

Webfiles:
Pentamark> http://www.pentamark.com
Crispin, Porter + Bogusky> http://www.cpbmiami.com
TBWA/Chiat/Day> http://www.chiatday.com
Jeep> http://www.jeep.com
BMW> http://www.miniusa.com
Nissan> http://www.nissandriven.com