No one would accuse auto manufacturers of being an overly creative bunch of folks. They typically have stuck to tried-and-true methods when it comes to their products and marketing. Incremental improvements year-after year with with the model-line refresh every five years. Their ads exhibit this too. Think of all the ads showing the new model effortlessly moving along a costal highway while the announcer rattles off the amazing new features.

This type of ad is par for the course, but recently I saw a car commercial that actually had me unabashedly grinning ear-to-ear. And it took a few minutes for that grin to wear off my face. Who was this for, you may ask? Well, before I answer that question let me tell you where I saw this ad, because it wasn’t on TV and, no, it not YouTube either. The answer is Vimeo. Yes, it’s one of those lesser-known sites that’s been embraced by the cool-kid hipster set.

Check it out:

You smiling? Well, even if your response was “meh”, let me give you three reasons why I think that this is something special.

1. They did something unexpected. The last thing I was expecting to see was to have this video co-op the entire browswer window to tell its story. When the browser went dark, it truly captured my attention. Not just my half-attention. But they didn’t simply make the screen go dark to have my full attention. That would have been half-way obvious. Instead they used it as part of their story telling vehicle (no pun intended).
2. They broke outside the constraints (literally). Doing video on the web has typically been serverd in two flavors normal (a/k/a square) and widescreen. There’s been a couple of exceptions here and there where folks are trying to do something unconventional (Toyota Scion comes to mind), but the vast majority stick to coloring inside the box. That’s what everyone thinks as being “video”, even though that format is a legacy of the TV screens in your grandparent’s house.
3. Delightful (put a smile on my face). You probably remember the smile I spoke of earlier. And here I am grinning  writing about it too. Granted, I’m a video geek, but I have to smile because what I saw delighted me and that was worth something.

“So what?” you might say. Well look at this snapshot the video’s growth after it was released.

How often do you see 59,000 people actively choose to watch a car ad — in a single day and over a quarter-million to-date. I’m no media buyer, but I bet a media buyer would kill to get that many people make a choice to watch their ad.