The Hypercube initiative has only just begun and already there's a flurry of activity as people start campaigning for one of the 50 Nissan Cubes. It's still really early, and I suspect only a small fraction of the overall participants have identified themselves. Nonetheless those who have stepped forward have the advantage of a head start, in that this kind of open source marketing is heavily influenced by those involved. Angie Kramer the creative director of this initiative is regularly conversing with participants via twitter about things like holding events in various Canadian cities.

It strikes me when I step back and take a broader look at what's happening that this is similar to the early stages of a reality television show, where you're inviting characters up onto the stage and asking them to demonstrate why they should be part of the fun. The irony of course is that with most shows this part of the process is never aired and takes place entirely behind the scenes. Yet with the hypercube you can pretty much see any and all aspects of how this campaign is taking shape.

For example I've been monitoring the keyword hypercube on twitter search and this allows me to generally follow both the conversation that @thehypercube has with participants but also what other people are saying about the project.

This type of radical transparency is rapidly emerging as the new normal for a lot of campaigns as they abandon attempts to control the conversation and instead hope that the discourse will hold both insights and opportunities to advance the visibility and appeal of the product.

The fact that in this case the product is an automobile is even more significant. The relationship we all have with our vehicles and the dominance they have had in society is changing.

The era of automobile arrogance is over, and the manufacturers can no longer shove products down our throats, but rather engage in conversations about the types of products we want.

This is more than just selling a car, this is about changing the relationship that the driver has with the car company as a whole. It begins with people driving and using their vehicles, but it goes on to the company maintaining the conversation and designing/marketing future products based on that ongoing feedback.

This is why I feel that this is just the start of a much larger process. That part of what's going on here is the casting of a reality television show that will be far more real than anything we've seen before.

So where I'd like to focus the rest of this entry is on some of the players who have emerged at this early part of the game.

Stro1 a/k/a Greg Majster is someone I've known for some time, and I was enthused to see him throw his toque in the ring within days of this initiative being announced. Stro1 has been actively engaged in the twitter back and forths and his multimedia skills will certainly help his chances in the quest for a Cube.

Another person I already knew of who has jumped in is Kevin Grandia, an author on the influential environmental site DeSmogBlog and during the past federal election Vote For The Environment. Kevin is also an SEO jedi and I would not be surprised if he employs his tricks to influence how google regards his worthiness of making the final cut of 50.

I'm also impressed with Telma Costa-Patmore who clearly hearts the cube and was quick to distinguish herself with both passion and creativity in declaring her intentions.

I also have to give attention to Andre Molnar who has evoked the power of drupal with his site mydrupliconcube. I'm both a fan and long time user of the Drupal open source platform and have a good sense of what it's capable of. Hopefully we'll see Andre use Drupal in funky ways to help him get a Cube.

A number of blogs have quickly emerged, allowing their authors to build their own arguments as to why they should be included. Julie Kroll has her Cubicle, Richard Haire is on the Run for the Cube, Tyler Schell wants one, and S.D. Cirttendom is using her existing blog to demonstrate her creativity and desire to get a Cube.

Michael Citrome is the first of what I assume will be many who start their own FB group to rally friends. Similarly folks in Saskatchewan are organizing as a province to get their culturally active citizens cubes.

Group blogs like AutoNorth are also in the game, and I anticipate other communities collaborating to get one.

So as you can see even at this early stage there's a ton of activity, it's all out in the open, and it's all autonomous. This is how a genuine ecosystem emerges online and as it grows and increases in diversity the onus will be on Nissan to both support and listen to the insights and commentary that they have to offer.

I find this to be an interesting contrast with Ford's Fiesta Movement which has similar tendencies towards user involvement and transparency, but falls far short of the mark now being set by the Nissan Cube campaign.

For example the Fiesta Movement gives the cars to participants for only six months, whereas the Hypercube gives away the vehicles for life. More importantly the "casting" of the Fiesta Movement is essentially opaque and closed, whereas right from the get go the Hypercube is open and subject to scrutiny. In the case of the Fiesta it was YouTube videos, but who knows how the judging will progress. In the case of the Cube it's all of social media and the process will involve stages that allow people to see how the outcome is reached via the process.

Ford does at least deserve credit for trying new tactics and embracing social media. On the other hand the marketing of the Kia Soul is an even stronger contrast with the Nissan Cube as it relies upon the same old predictable mass media model. Here in Canada the car is one of the main sponsors of the Canadian airing of 24. Big budget tv advertising to support big budget American tv programming. For a car that is supposed to have soul it seems a lot more square than the cube. It will be interesting to see which model is more successful as they play out in the Canadian market over the next several months.