Nissan has just announced a new ad campaign, leading up to a new Leaf commercial in September, you can watch some of the other commercials in the campaign now on Youtube! Links below, followed by the Nissan Press release

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XwL0SYcmdg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRvIxi0MgNg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0tcR2dU6HQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96-gXmVcj0g



NISSAN LAUNCHES ‘INNOVATION FOR ALL’ BRAND CAMPAIGN TO BUILD ON US MARKET GROWTH

New campaign to feature full line of Nissan vehicles, innovations that drive them

 

FRANKLIN, Tenn. (Aug. 25, 2010) – Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA) today announced a significant new marketing initiative to showcase the strength of Nissan’s innovative product portfolio and build on 10 straight months of sales growth for the Nissan brand in the U.S. market. The campaign, to be headlined under the theme “Innovation for All,” will launch on Aug. 28 and permeate a variety of medium and targets over the next several months.

 

“Innovation for All” will begin with a series of five television spots that capture Nissan’s history, track record and process of innovation. The campaign features the full line of Nissan products – from the 100-percent electric Nissan Leaf and Altima mid-size sedan to the Z sports car, Titan full-size pickup truck and cube ® activity vehicle. The versatile campaign also will appear in print and online with a consistent look and feel.

 

“Innovation has been the heart and soul of the Nissan brand for nearly 100 years,” said Jon Brancheau, vice president, Marketing, NNA. “‘Innovation for All’ isn’t simply a new marketing idea. It’s the very foundation of Nissan worldwide. This campaign captures Nissan’s spirit and continued drive towards innovation – not just for the elite, but for everyone.”

 

The campaign, developed by longtime partners TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles, depicts Nissan’s innovation through a series of stories that are in turn whimsical, heartwarming, technology-minded, spirited and poignant. “We’re sharing Nissan stories that are as exciting, intelligent and innovative as the brand itself,” said Rob Schwartz, chief creative officer, TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles.

 

The first of the “Innovation” ads will debut Aug. 28 during the ESPN College Football Preview Show:

·         “Innovations” – A celebration of Nissan’s current innovations, including smart phone apps, recycled materials, air purifiers, the Juke – the world’s first Sports Cross – and the 100-percent electric Nissan Leaf.

 

The second set of ad spots, set to air beginning Sept 1, include:

·         “Baby” – A soon-to-be dad transforms his 370Z into a Maxima sports sedan for the arrival of his first child.

·         “Kidzilla” – A little boy’s toy car collection endures a beating, from dog-chewing to water plunges, but the Nissan Altima remains unscathed – just like in the real world.

·         “Dime” – One of the most important safety innovations that Nissan delivers in every new car is its brake override system. This ad shows that a Nissan truly can stop on a dime.

 

Sept. 9 marks the debut of “Polar Bear,” a highlight of the “Innovation for All” campaign as it previews the Nissan Leaf – the world’s first mass market, affordable zero-emission 100-percent electric vehicle. In this story, a polar bear journeys from the icy Arctic through forests, highways, train tracks and over bridges to the big city and then on to the suburbs, where the animal finds someone who is trying to help – the owner of an all-electric Nissan Leaf.

 

The “Innovation for All” campaign represents a significant marketing initiative for Nissan, aiming to deliver over 200,000,000 media impressions before the end of 2010.

 

In North America, Nissan's operations include automotive styling, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing.  Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program 2010 and has been recognized as a 2010 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at www.NissanUSA.com and www.InfinitiUSA.com.

So have your dealers started calling you to ask what your order date is? I got a call from Boardwalk today. I said very positive things about Brendan, I hope that doesn't come back to burn me ;)

I was told by the GM that there would likely be no test drives before they get a demo vehicle in December, I sure as help hope that isn't true. Nissan has been saying driving tours will happen sometime this fall.

So we’re getting down to the final hours before the Hackathon, and those of us attending are getting ready for our trips! Nik and I both arrive from California tomorrow afternoon, while Joe is coming into St. Louis earlier in the day.

Wednesday (the 18th, tonight, depending on when you read this) we will be broadcasting the Hackathon kickoff from St. Louis DotNetNuke User Group. You will be able watch the session live, or watch the recordings later on.

The Hackathon contest will run until the 25th, when entries are due. For all the details on the event itself check out the rules and other details posted on http://hackathon.in

The live broadcast and video playback will occur here on DotNetNuke.com.

Why should you enter the Hackathon, even if you aren’t there attending live? You can win some great prizes!

There will be more blog posts coming in the next few days from both Joe Brinkman and myself as we post more details about mobile development and DNN.

For now, if you need some project ideas, here are some that ANYONE can create a project for. Most of these things will need a web service created to expose this data, I’ll have examples for you to see how to easily do this later this week!

An app to review your website Site Log data

An app to monitor your Event Log

An app to access the DNN Dashboard (host)

An app that exposes a user’s “work” from the HTML module

An app to list of blog posts and comments for the DNN blog module

An app to read and post data to the DNN Forum module

An app to interact with any other DNN module!

Don’t let our suggestions limit you in anyway, they are by no means the only things you could develop, in fact we encourage you to think outside of the box, they are just there to get your gears turning on something for the contest. These apps don’t need to be highly complex either, just a simple mobile app to perform a function is fine.

We will be releasing a sample application here this week as well that does a few different things with DNN that I think you will find very cool! I know I’ve used it and it’s pretty damn sweet to see!

More ...

Do you run a website using the DotNetNuke Forum module? If so, you might find that you want to run a report on users in a specific role to see how many posts those users are posting per month in your forums. If that’s the case I have just the SQL sample for you!

Are you interested in going to the St. Louis Day of .NET next week? Did you fail to get your boss to approved the entry fee of $200 for this excellent two day event?

Well have I got a deal for you!

I’ve got a free entry to the St. Louis Day of .NET that I am going to give away. That means you have a chance to go for free, you don’t have to pay the $200 entry fee, but here’s the deal. You need to earn the free entry!

To get the free entry you need to write a blog post about what you are most interested in seeing/learning (choosing from the list of sessions) at the event next Friday and Saturday.

Once you’ve blogged about it, post the URL to your blog post in the comments here on my blog. You must post your blog by Monday at 5pm PDT, and from those submissions I will randomly choose one who will get to go to the event for free.

Remember, the entry fee covers the event, and even food (breakfast/lunch both days) at the event!

Of the remaining submissions I will pick 5 randomly, to get access to a discount code, saving you $75 off the $200 entry fee.

Now for the rules. Bribery won’t work, so you don’t have to say you are most excited about seeing my sessions at the event next week (though you can definitely choose those).

Hope to see you in St. Louis! For more information about the event check out http://www.stlouisdayofdotnet.com/

More ...

So I spent the afternoon yesterday trying to repair a leak in the Injen Super SES Exhaust system that was on the 350z when I purchased the car back in January. Sometime in March the exhaust started leaking and it has slowly gotten worse. Normally I would of just scrapped it and put something else on, but with all the life changes (new job, moved to California, trying to sell the house in Colorado, prepping for our first child) we’ve been going through the budget hasn’t allowed for that at this point.

If you haven’t been reading my blog lately (what’s the matter with you?) you may have missed the couple of blog posts about the upcoming St. Louis Day of .NET that is going on in St. Louis. If you’ve missed those posts, check them out.

In conjunction with that event (which is on a Friday the 20th and Saturday the 21st) we’ve been planning another event more specific to DotNetNuke in conjunction with the local user group. We are glad to announce the next DotNetNuke Hackathon. As with the previous Hackathon events (held in Orlando and Washington DC) we will be broadcasting this event live online, and encouraging people both in St. Louis and around the world to get involved.

This event will be held at the Steady Rain offices (a DotNetNuke Gold Partner) in St. Louis Missouri on August 18th, 2010 at 6pm. This event will be streamed live online, visible on the DotNetNuke Hackathon page so you don’t have to be local to be part of the presentation and event.

The basic premise of the Hackathon is this, we want to help stimulate your minds into doing some mobile development for DotNetNuke. To do that, we are going to be presenting a sample DotNetNuke mobile application, an application that will run on the Android Smartphone OS. We will be demonstrating how you can use some common development tools such as Appcelerator’s Titanium Developer to get up and running on developing mobile applications that interact with DotNetNuke and work on various mobile devices.

As with the previous two Hackathon’s there will be an associated development contest following the event on the 18th. We aren’t limiting you to any specific project type or platform for the contest, but do suggest that you develop an application for either Android, IPhone or Windows Phone 7 devices. What your application does is completely up to you, the idea behind a Hackathon is to create a quick application that is easy to build and shows off unique functionality. You don’t have to be one of the top notch developers in the DNN community to enter or even win, so start thinking of ideas for your project, there’s no reason you can’t start on the development right now.

We will be announcing more details on the contest here in the next few days.

Prior to the Hackathon myself and Joe Brinkman will be blogging to get you up to speed before the event on mobile development, highlighting some of the tools you can use. We are also going to be blogging about some potential project ideas for those of you who might need some inspiration to create an entry for the Hackathon contest. We will also likely be posting some sample web services for a few key DNN datasets that you might find useful in your applications, as well as highlighting how you can use other tools such as iWeb to interface with DNN data from a mobile device.

Stay tuned as we get more information together on the Hackathon page here on DotNetNuke.com

Right now here are some of the pertinent details

Topic: Mobile DotNetNuke

Date: August 18, 2010

Time: 6pm

Location: Steady Rain Offices, 716 Geyer Avenue, Suite 400 St. Louis, Missouri 63104-4073 (map)

Contest submission deadline: TBD, likely 8/26/2010

Prizes: To be announced

More ...

It looks like www.OurColoradoLife.com and of course the precursor, www.going2colorado.com are quickly coming to an end. As of yesterday we have a signed contract on our house in Parker Colorado. Hopefully by this time next month we'll be free and clear of the house and able to move on with our lives here in California.

Myself and a buddy headed down to Plugin2010's public night down in San Jose this evening. To be honest, there wasn't much to be learned there, though there were a few interesting things to see.

They had the usual blue Leaf that has been around California a few times now (I've tracked it down and photo graphed it twice), though tonight was a little different. There were no red ropes this time, so people could get right up on the car. It was mostly unlocked, but they weren't too happy when people opened the doors (I swear I didn't! but saw a few try). The car was cleaner than when it was out on display in the open as I've seen it before, though had a number of finger prints on it by the end of the night. They also had the various accessory lights on, see some of my photos for those.

Nissan also had a battery pack on display, that was cool to see. 
 

In addition to the Nissan info, there was an AV Charger there on display, I got a number of photos from that.
  



In addition to the AV charger on display there were a TON of other chargers available. I talked to one of the Coulomb Tech reps for a bit (I think he was a founder of the company) and he seemed to talk like their charging units (mainly the free ones) would only be made available to the GM/Ford/Smart car buyers, not to Nissan Leaf buyers, but we'll see how that plays out. Since they are local I am hoping to reach out to them again soon and see what more info they can provide.

Check out all of the rest of the photos posted from the night

Good news today on the Nissan Leaf front! They bowed to the pressure from all of us at LeafOwner.com (kidding of course) and went with a 8yr 100k mile warranty for the leaf!
http://green.autoblog.com/2010/07/27/...

PRESS RELEASE

Nissan Announces National Market Roll-Out Plan for Zero-Emission Nissan LEAF

- More than half of 17,000 reservations located in initial launch markets -

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today, nearly 17,000 future Nissan LEAF drivers are learning when the world's first affordable all-electric, zero-emission vehicle will be available in their markets. Consumers who have placed reservations for the Nissan LEAF received a communication today regarding market timing and next steps in ordering the all-electric vehicle.

Nissan LEAF first will be available to consumers in December, in California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona and Tennessee. These areas are home to The EV Project – the largest electric vehicle and infrastructure deployment ever undertaken. The EV Project is a result of a partnership with charging infrastructure provider ECOtality and partially funded by a grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy. Customers in these first five launch states, who represent more than 55 percent of total Nissan LEAF reservations, will be able to place firm orders for the Nissan LEAF starting in August.

Nissan LEAF will be introduced to Texas and Hawaii shortly thereafter, in January 2011; North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina and Alabama follow in April 2011; and be rolled-out to the balance of the nation beginning in Fall 2011 with availability in all markets nationwide by the end of that year.

"We are pleased to see so many people making a choice for a zero-emission future by placing reservations for the Nissan LEAF," said Brian Carolin, senior vice president, Sales and Marketing, Nissan North America. "Consumer feedback and market readiness have been key drivers in developing our phased rollout. Nissan is able to target areas of customer demand for early launch, while continuing to work in future markets to ensure the continued success of electric vehicles."

Nissan North America also is informing its consumers that the lithium-ion battery pack that powers the Nissan LEAF will carry a warranty of 8 years or 100,000 miles – matching U.S. market competitive conditions.

Consumers who have reserved the Nissan LEAF online will be invited to place orders through their dealer for the vehicle in advance of market roll-out timing, allowing time for consumers to select a dealer and assess home charging needs. Nissan is continuing to take reservations for the Nissan LEAF through its website, www.NissanUSA.com. Interested consumers are encouraged to place a reservation, which entails a $99 fully refundable fee to secure a spot on the list to place an order.

The reservations process has educated Nissan about more than just geographic distribution. Some information we've learned about future Nissan LEAF drivers includes:

* Favorite color: The favorite color of Nissan LEAF owners is blue. More than 30 percent of reservations are for blue Nissan LEAF electric cars. Silver is a close second, at about 26 percent. The remaining reservations are close to evenly split among red, black and white.
* Trim level: About 75 percent of Nissan LEAF orders are for the SL trim level, which adds a rearview monitor, solar panel spoiler, fog lights, and automatic headlights.
* Home and Parking: About 75 percent of people who placed reservations own a single-family home. About 68 percent have attached garages, while an additional 18 percent have detached garages or carports. Home ownership and dedicated parking are important factors for Nissan LEAF drivers who plan to charge their vehicles at home.
* Purchase time: About 67 percent of Nissan LEAF reservations holders have indicated that they'd be ready to purchase or lease a Nissan LEAF within one year of placing the reservation. An additional 24 percent indicated they would be ready in one to two years.
* Interests: Several primary interests are inspiring people to order a Nissan LEAF. Cited interests include energy independence (35 percent); environmental consciousness (34 percent); and cost/fuel economy (20 percent).


In North America, Nissan's operations include automotive design, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing. Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program 2010, whose key priorities are reducing CO2 emissions, cutting other emissions and increasing recycling. More information on the Nissan LEAF and zero emissions can be found at www.nissanusa.com.

SOURCE Nissan North America

So when the Project350z was purchased in Colorado back in January it had a Nismo Cold Air Intake on it. Shortly thereafter I moved to California, and guess what? The Nismo isn’t CARB legal, which means it isn’t legal for use in the State of California, so off the intake came.

And there it sat. and sat. and sat some more. Until today, I finally decided to pull it out of the box and put it up on Ebay. So there it is, sitting on Ebay, have at it!

We just caught a tweet from Coulomb about the Plugin2010 event having a Public Night on 7/27
http://www.plugin2010.com/images/stor...

I don't know about the rest of you, but LeafOwner.com will definitely be checking the event out.