I'm the type of person who has a wide range of interests, and I make a concerted effort to defy stereotype and expectation. For example I've always been interested in transportation, and while I resisted the automotive world for the first three decades of my life, I've lately been fully immersed in car and motorcycle culture. In fact I've been watching so much of the Speed channel that I intend to write a blog post analyzing their programming. In Pizza Pizza locations in Toronto you'll not only be able to see the Tech Trends series I produced, but soon a new series called Motorcycle Minute.

Recently I've been invited to participate in an exciting initiative called the Hypercube which will launch the Nissan Cube in Canada. I'm friends with some of the folk at the agency behind this experiment, Capital C, and they've asked me to observe and analyze what I would characterize as the largest and most comprehensive open source marketing campaign in Canada, maybe even the world.

Rather than spend millions on traditional advertising, Nissan Canada is instead going to give away 50 vehicles to people who they hope will use those vehicles as part of their already creative and somewhat public lives. This type of crowd source marketing on a national and evolving scale is truly impressive, not to mention risky. Yet as a model for open source marketing it demonstrates a courage and vision that I think will be necessary in getting through and even thriving in these volatile times that we're in.

Here I'm defining open source marketing as a process in which a product is introduced and sold to a market without a central command or message, but rather by facilitating a grassroots campaign that is diverse in its voices, culture, and outreach. There's a radical transparency at work here that represents a new approach to selling cars.

Bennett Klein has been using twitter and the Capital C blog to ruminate and share his excitement about the initiative. In one post in particular he articulates a Social Creativity Manifesto where he describes the intellectual framework for this innovative grassroots campaign. What I find particularly interesting is his passage on Creative Ideology. So often people neglect the political dynamics of social media, and the democratic potential of harnessing the insight and energy of campaign participants. Instead Bennett embraces it:

Ideas are sparks, ideologies are vessels. There are politics inherent in any dynamic relationship, and exploiting these tensions is critical to great creative. Because social creativity involves ‘sharing’ within the entire technoverse, a ideology at the core of an idea will drive the highest interaction and motivation. The politics of love, sex, theology and governance with always fuel maximum social stimulation.

Therefore a key question for this campaign is what is the underlying message. The irony of course is that there isn't one, at least not this early in the process. They are opening themselves up completely and allowing the public to chime in and participate in the crafting of that message.

First that will be a large and yet undetermined group who will all audition for one of 50 cars. Then it will begin again with those 50 people, who through living their own lives with their cars will lead and help define the culture and community that grows around this particular vehicle.

One of my favourite concert movies is the Beastie Boys "Awesome I fuckin shot that!" in which they gave out 50 cameras at a concert at Madison Square Garden on the condition that the recipients never turn them off. The final product, edited from all that raw footage, is totally amazing, and gives a perspective on that concert and their music that would never have been possible in a traditional format.

Imagine that same type of approach applied to the marketing and culture of a car. Automotive communities tend to be passionate and have long life spans. I participate in a couple related to my motorcycle, and plan to start a local one myself this spring. The relationship car manufacturers have with these communities vary, but in this case Nissan is using their box like car to "think outside of the box".

Angie Kramer is the Capital C staffer who's working the hypercube twitter account, currently the primary source for info on what's going on, and she's demonstrated both an open ear and a willingness to bend and learn with the needs and interests of this growing community. This includes fielding suggestions on what the criteria should be and how the (social) media should be used. On all levels this campaign is open, and as characters emerge to audition for the Nissan cubes, a culture will be fostered from their interaction and mutual inspiration.

I'm personally curious as to whether anyone will try and hack or manipulate the process. This is always the variable and challenge for open environments, a test of the community's ability and resolve to self-regulate. Certainly the folks running the campaign will work to ensure a level playing field, but to offer a scenario, what if a slate of individuals secretly co-operated to ensure that whomever got a car would then share it with others a la zip car. Unlikely perhaps, but it would increase their odds if such a pact were established.

Another suggestion I'd have would be to setup a wiki, and allow people to start editing the site on their own. This would be immediately applicable to the FAQ, as it would allow people to ask all sorts of relevant and interesting questions. However I think the nature and potential of this kind of open source marketing is in the randomness that can arise when users interact and brainstorm. Who knows what kind of crowd source wisdom might be derived from letting people write/edit whatever. :)

The next phase of the Hypercube project will be a social networking platform that will allow people to make their case as to why they should get one of the 50 cars. The more people who create profiles the greater the diversity and the probability of creating a solid marketing campaign that in the end sells more Nissan Cubes. It's a novel way to approach selling automobiles, and if successful will confirm a number of hypotheses about the changing nature of media and commerce.

I'm going to analyze this campaign closely, in large part because I'm curious as to whether such a radically open approach can work, especially in an era when both the auto and media industries are in chaos. I anticipate there also being a lot of media coverage on this, given how different this campaign is, and one thing I promise to do is offer an analysis that contrasts with the rest. Though with that said I'm also curious as to how the rest of the media and auto companies react.