Ever wondered what you get when you bring together 24 cars, one car battery, and ’80s one-hit-wonder Gary Numan? DieHard did and just imagine if they hadn’t. The world may may never have seen this rendition of “Cars” with a car orchestra. It’s some video goodness and a nice example of a brand doing something relevant yet fun in the digital space.

[Via Boing Boing]

Starting in 2011, you’ll be able to quickly connect your iPod or iPhone for integrated use within a BMW. Using Apple’s iPod Out functionality, together with the next generation iDrive system from BMW, you’ll be able to control all of your music on screen using the interface you’ve grown accustom to. Down the road BMW hopes to offer integrated control for other apps on your device, though one may question the safety hazards involved in doing so. The whole system is an effort by BMW to give you instant access to new technologies as they become available for your chosen Apple device.

With the massive success of the Ford Fiesta’s social media marketing movement (which we wrote about here), Ford has decided to move the campaign into the retail arena. When owners come to pick up their Fiesta, they’ll get an interactive USB drive which holds their owner’s manual and a portal to Fiesta’s social networking community, podcasts, enthusiast clubs and merchandise. They’re calling it part of the “unpackaging experience” and it’s all due to a new effort by Ford to make the car delivery a true experience.

New owners start their unpacking experience by watching a video on the Ford dealership kiosks featuring the Ford Fiesta agents from the online social media experience. Then, they get their pictures taken with the car so they can be uploaded to the community site, and once inside, they plug their USB device into the car’s USB port which starts 19 minutes in podcasts that explain the car’s features.

Of course, it doesn’t end there. When they get home, they can use the USB drive to download the Fiesta Community app. The app comes with the Fiestapedia, a simple Photoshop application to photoshop pics of their new Fiesta, and of course, lots of links to the online community. It reminds me of Saturn’s successful community building and focus on the dealer experience before social media was even a buzzword, and should go well with the latest addition to the Fiesta’s marketing strategy: traditional TV ads.

It’s interesting to see a car campaign where the TV commercial is the afterthought and not the center of the campaign. It’s also nice to see one that doesn’t just show shots of the car zooming about on a closed course while some guy with a deeply masculine voice intones its virtues. According to Matt Vandyke, director of U.S. marketing communications for Ford, the previous strategy of “blast-bust” where there’s one huge marketing push before the vehicle enters the marketplace wasn’t working. Vandyke claims that Fiesta’s social marketing strategy, “five times more efficient than anything we’ve done before.” And he promises that, “It’s something you’ll see us doing with other vehicles going forward.”

Having worked on my fair share of lackluster car commercials over the years - the ones where they usually dust off last year’s script and throw in the new model, then rinse and repeat - it’s always refreshing to see a car spot with some real creativity involved with it.

One would think that consumers have seen enough of those dime-a-dozen car ads showing a shiny new car speeding on a curvy mountain or coastal road, right? (or it’s blazing across some two-lane desert blacktop or slowly sauntering through the vineyards of Napa or racing through the steel canyons of some city center’s financial district).

You get the picture. We’ve seen those tried and tired scenarios over and over with the resulting spots usually producing a big, gaping yawn. They are lifeless and forgettable to say the least and don’t instill too much confidence in the brands.

So it’s nice when a car company looks to do something creative and interesting with their ads.

Take this fun and creative ad for the new Nissan Sentra. The filmmakers use a remote control miniature Nissan Sentra and shoot it as if it were a real car blasting through some suburban locale, with a few controlled drifts thrown in for good measure. The ad is accented with a fast, heavy metal hair band sounding theme song as well. It’s as action packed as any silly minute from The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift. It’s fun.

If you watch the “making of” video, you’ll see the spot is also made on the ground, with real miniature cars running into things like the camera and miniature remote control helicopters and the art department figuring out the best way to jump a miniature car off a pizza box. Good stuff.

If you’re looking to keep up with the Joneses, often you need only drive by their house and check out the post-holiday trash pile in order to determine the next items for your wish list (not that we encourage that sort of behavior or anything). That’s the concept behind this simple but well executed stunt by MINI in Amsterdam.

One longtime criticism of automakers is that new car designs sometimes have little to do with what consumers actually want in a vehicle. In the last two weeks, two major carmakers are answering that criticism and turning to social media tools in the process.

G.M. declares, “We want your opinion” with its launch of the Lab, which is available online and through an iPhone app. It’s a spot where consumers can see ideas on the drawing board and offer thoughts.

Dave Rand, the outgoing head of global advanced design at G.M., summed it up for the New York Times:

“We are showing things we’d never shown before and learning how people react. This is valuable because it gives us something we do not get from traditional market research or auto shows.”

It also brings a once highly secretive design process into the light of day.

Audi is also going to the social masses via Facebook with its Audi Design Challenge, which is all about what cars should be like in the future. They’re bringing their 325,000+ fans into the design process and asking for feedback along the way. With any luck, maybe Audi will bring us back a car that Tweets or Facebooks for us.

Land Rover is getting even more mileage of its Twitter campaign than they probably intended. The blogosphere has been buzzing all week with opinions pro and con on the automaker’s campaign.

In case you haven’t been following this, Land Rover launched a campaign coinciding with the New York Auto Show, encouraging people to join the conversation about Land Rover on Twitter. Billboards, taxis and pay-per-Tweets featured a branded hashtag that could be used to follow and/or join the discussion on Twitter. (A hashtag for you non-Twitter folks is a word preceded by the # sign. It’s supposed to make an online search for a topic easier.) Through ad network Twittad, Land Rover was able to get its Twitterers to put branding on their profiles for a fee.

That didn’t sit well with some. Mashable’s Adam Ostrow summed up their opposition:

What critics will no doubt argue is that the credibility of these tweets is totally out the window, because some of these users might’ve been paid to talk about Land Rover. While Land Rover didn’t say “tweets must be positive,” the argument goes: “how can one really stay objective when they’re being paid?”

By the same token, anyone could make comments and use the hashtag, meaning that negative posts about the brand would come through as well.

Regardless of your take, what Land Rover did is something to take note of. What I find particularly interesting is the way they integrated Twitter and the idea of the conversation across multiple platforms. They promoted the Twitter conversations using traditional out of home venues and even tied the loop to a real world event experience taking place in New York City.

OK, this new ride from Segway looks pretty cool, and it might actually have more real world applications than the original Segway PT, the people mover that only big city police and tourists seem to scoot around on.

Essentially, the PUMA is the same basic concept as the more familiar Segway PT that you stand up on and ride, and it uses the same gyroscopic self-balancing technology. The PUMA prototype seats two people and can reach a reported top speed of 35 miles an hour. The lithium-ion battery allows the PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) to travel up to 35 miles on one charge.

GM and Segway unveiled the PUMA prototype this week in New York (it’ll be on display at the Automotive show) and hope it will reach the marketplace by 2012. It should cost a lot less than a traditional car, though no price point has been set by GM or Segway. Though for now, the PUMA is still very much in the “wouldn’t it be cool” phase, meaning that it is still only “a prototype, not a product.”

“We were the S.U.V. company, and we accept that,” said Larry Burns, GM’s vice president for research and development and strategic planning, to the New York Times. “We want to become the U.S.V. company — known for ultra-small vehicles.”

The PUMA also features GM’s wireless On Star communications technology.

“Imagine small, nimble electric vehicles that know where other moving objects are and avoid running into them. Now, connect those vehicles in an Internet-like web and you can greatly enhance the ability of people to move through cities, find places to park and connect to their social and business networks,” says Burns.

Burns also touts the PUMA’s size as a big plus in helping to relieve urban congestion and says that six of these things can fit in one parking spot:

It values less over more; taking up less space, using less energy, produced more efficiently with fewer parts, creating fewer emissions during production and operation, all while offering more enjoyment, productivity, and connectivity.

I can see a vehicle like this really taking off in Asia and Europe, where the streets are narrower and cars literally choke the city. If you grew up on wild visions of a cool Sci-fi like future full of floating hovercraft cars, moving personnel pods and other such far fetched transport oddities, the unveiling of innovative vehicles like the PUMA is always exciting.

I’m still waiting for my X-34 Landspeeder:

Ford is looking for a few good Millennials to promote its new subcompact, the Fiesta. Already available in Europe, the Fiesta and its 2010 U.S. launch have already been generating some buzz in the car community, but the automaker is banking on a social media approach to really getting the word out to young people. They’re seeking 100 “agents” to drive the German-built Fiestas this year, perform “missions” and capture their experiences for distribution on Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.

We’re looking for an elite crop of drivers to take the wheel: people with a strong presence on the web, an ability to craft a compelling story through video, and a hunger for adventure. As a driver, you’ll receive monthly secret assignments from Ford Mission Control that will take you to places you’ve never been, to meet people you’ve never met, and to experiences you’ll never forget. And you’ll bring your friends and followers along for the ride.

It’s an interesting approach and could prove to be a more cost-effective marketing tool than the traditional media the cash-strapped Big Three tends to rely upon. Where the campaign may fall short, however, is in its authenticity within social media. When consumers fall in love with a product and cross the threshold into brand advocacy, it happens organically. They spread the word out of a genuine appreciation for the brand, not because a company gave them a free ride (and the gas and insurance to go along with it). Sometimes the best approach is to support the community rather than construct one.

Ford is right on when it comes to noting the power of social media, particularly for this demographic. But this age group can also be tough on brands that play on their turf. In any case, it’ll be interesting to see how Ford’s foray into social media marketing plays out.

It looks like they won’t have any trouble recruiting folks to join the “movement.” They’ve already received 1,500 applications thus far and will be accepting them through March 13th.

These days, it seems there are more distractions than ever, which can mean competition for a consumer’s attention. Sometimes brands have go the extra mile to stand apart. Ads incorporating augmented reality, which bridges virtual reality and real world elements, seem to be popping up more and more as such a tool to attract attention.

A recent notable example comes from across-the-pond where readers of German car magazines got a unique look at a new Mini convertible. By taking a basic looking print ad and holding it up to a Web cam, the new Mini seems to magically jump off of the page in 3-D.

Check out the video for the full effect.