It would seem Nissan's relationship with the Star Wars franchise is paying off. The Rogue officially became the manufacturer's number one seller last December, sailing past the Altima with all the haste of the Millennium Falcon making the Kessel run. In fact, Nissan says Rogue sales are up 50 percent in 2017 compared to the same time last year. We aren't overly fond of the Rogue when it comes to other crossovers but it certainly has plenty of appeal to shoppers in this segment. It also has a name shared with arguably the biggest movie franchise of all time, backed by fans who would buy Star Wars-themed hemorrhoid cream if it were available.
So it makes complete sense that Nissan wants to keep this party rolling, and to the manufacturer's credit, it's a very cool party. The latest offering is a new virtual reality video appropriately titled Battle Test: A Nissan Rogue 360-Degree VR Experience. It's available for free download on a variety of devices including Oculus, Steam, Samsung VR, Discovery VR, Jaunt, Daydream, and Littlstar. Or you can watch the interactive mini-movie from Nissan's YouTube page, available at the top of this article.
And when we say mini-movie, we really mean that. Nissan worked with Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light and Magic, and Skywalker Sound to bring this together, and it's flat-out awesome to watch. It was shot last year during the filming of Nissan's "Battle Tested" commercial, only now you can look in all directions to see explosions, ships, and an AT-ST exploding above the Rogue as it darts through the battlefield.
Nissan wants to use the video to advertise the Rogue’s various safety features like Blind Spot Warning, Forward Emergency Braking, and other systems. But that’s all totally lost when immersed in the Star Wars universe. Perhaps the messaging will be subliminal, like a Jedi mind trick? Pedestrian detected. You will stop.
"With this experience, we're putting fans right in the middle of the action," said Jeremy Tucker, vice president, Marketing Communications & Media, Nissan North America, Inc., in a press release on the video. "One of the many goals we set out to accomplish through this wildly successful collaboration was to engage current and potential customers, and we've done that through a variety of opportunities including television commercials, auto shows and in dealerships."
With special edition Star Wars models of the Rogue available, Nissan seems to have captured a bit of lightning (dare we say, Force Lightning?) in a bottle. With the official DVD and Blu-Ray release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story happening today, it will be interesting to see how much longer the manufacturer can keep this partnership fresh. For what it’s worth Nissan, if you keep pumping out cool stuff like this video, we’ll be rooting for you.
