Hasta La Gadget!

SONY has launched a campaign to get us all singing in our cars.

“Singing in your car” takes an activity that we all do (often to the annoyance of fellow passengers) and turns it into an interactive TV and online contest. You can send in your auditions (posted to YouTube) and some of the best (what is the criteria?!) get featured in the TV CM! Susan Boyle eat your heart out!

The first group of auditions has already been selected and their entries are up for all to see. The second wave of entries, where drivers and passengers sing “Easy Rider” (by Tamio Okuno) for a TV CM/music video, will be closing soon. On December 1 one of the auditions will be awarded a prize of “ten years’ vacation”. This means that, given the government-estimated average that Japanese people go on domestic trips 2.77 times a year and it costs 30,390 yen each time, the winner gets 842,000 yen ($9,500). Not bad.

The TV CM and music video will start broadcasting from mid-December, with a special 60 second TV ad on December 20 featuring all the auditions and entries so far. Finally, another winner from an additional round of auditions will be announced in January, the award being again the super “ten years’ vacation” cash.

Wait a minute. Why Sony? Why cars? Well, Sony is promoting the na-vu, a vehicle navigation system.

The na-vu has all the usual map and GPS functions, plus live updates on traffic and congestion. Design is important too; it comes in three sizes and many colors (including pink!). But perhaps most interestingly, it is a mobile navigation system: it can be taken in and out of the vehicle, and has pedestrian and cyclist modes to guide you when you are on the move (but not in a car). Further, the wansegu (ワンセグ) digital TV functionality means that your vehicle becomes your living room (or it doubles-up as a portable TV), and you can play music and videos, and even send recorded data from your Sony Blue Ray to watch on the na-vu.