Nissan created a four-hour lofi YouTube ad and people actually love it

February 14, 2023

Nissan has tapped into the popularity of lofi videos on YouTube by creating a four-hour-long ad — and people aren’t hating it.

Released on February 2, the video is titled Enjoy the Powerfully Peaceful ARIYA. It’s a low-touch advertisement for the company’s latest EV, the Nissan ARIYA.

At the time of writing the video had over 1.6 million views and 625 comments which were largely positive.

Nissan taps into the popularity of lofi YouTube videos

This may seem surprising for an advertisement that’s four hours long. But this is where Nissan has been quite clever.

The entire video is an animation of a woman driving the ARIYA to a soundtrack of lofi music. These kinds of videos are incredibly popular on YouTube — they’re incredibly chill and great for background calm background music for work and study.

One of the most popular is the Lofi Girl channel which streams lofi hip hop beats 24 hours a day across two ‘radio’ channels. With almost 12 million subscribers, it’s most recognisable for its anime-style icon studying to lofi beats with her cat.

Since launching in 2015 the channel has racked up more than 1.5 billion views.

Just how popular is it? Well in July 2022 the internet was in uproar when YouTube removed both streams for two days over what ended up being a bogus copyright claim.

And tapping into this deeply specific cultural zeitgeist seems to be paying off for Nissan. YouTube comments tend to be a cesspool of despair, but people seem to be enjoying what the auto company is laying down.

“This is how commercials should be. Not designed to annoy people but provide with a pleasant experience which they associate with the product,” one commenter said.

“This is one of the best ads I’ve ever seen in my life. Very unique and I never thought I’d describe an ad as peaceful. And it did its job; never heard of a Nissan Ariya before now I’ll never forget the name. Marketing team deserves a huge raise,” another said.

It’s genuinely a great ad. It’s not only tapping into something incredibly popular online that connects to the product — a quiet EV — but it’s offering the viewer added value through a soundtrack that is, honestly, fire.

You can watch the entire ad and simultaneously boost our article dwell time right here:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tegan Jones

Senior Technology Journalist

Tegan Jones is a senior technology journalist at SmartCompany. A multi-award-winning journalist, she has been reporting on technology, telecommunications and gaming for the past 10 years. She regularly appears on mainstream media channels as an expert tech commentator. Her previous roles include editor of Gizmodo Australia and global reviews editor at Finder. She has also served as a reporter and editor across Business Insider, Lifehacker and Kotaku Australia. Tegan was the co-host of one of the top technology podcasts in Australia, Queens of the Drone Age. You can find her on Twitter @Tegan_Writes.