Toyota Case study Open Road Project by Dentsu Kansai

Brand: I-Road
Advertiser: Toyota Motor Corporation
Agency: Dentsu Inc., Tokyo
Creative Director: Kazuhiro Shimura
Communication Designer: Yoji Sakamoto
Account Director: Hideyuki Hirai
Account Manager: Wataru Inoue
Account Executive: Masayuki Umezawa/Wataru Shiotani
Strategic Planner: Minoru Kikuchi/Rui Egashira/Kana Kobayashi/Ryuma Okuda
Business Planner: Junichiro Kubota/Kotaro Sasamoto/Tetsuji Nose/Yukiya Yamane/Kenichiro Dohi
Film Production Company: Dentsu Tec Inc., Tokyo
Director: Tomoyuki Kato
Producer 2: Tatsuya Murayama/Syuhei Sakamoto/Chisako Hasegawa/Tatsuo Yamano
Special Effects Company: Information Services International-Dentsu, Ltd, Tokyo
System Producer: Atsushi Nisikawa
System Planner: Tomoko Suzuki/Michitaka Iida
Supervisor: Hidemasa Takahashi
Campaign Summary: Tokyo, Plagued With Chronic Traffic Congestion And Parking Problems, Is Witness To An Increasing Number Of Cars On The Road—To The Point That Cars Are No Longer Convenient. However, If You Look Closely, Youll Notice Tokyo Has An Abundance Of Underutilized Roads And Spaces That Are Too Small For Cars. We Wanted To Bring The Freedom That Driving Offers Back To Tokyo, So We Developed The Ultra-Compact Ev Concept Vehicle, I-Road, Tandem With A Service To Find Parking, Calling It The Open Road Project. We Recruited Test Drivers, “Pilots”, From The Website And Developed Both A Product And Service. The I-Road Collected Behavioral And Movement Data From Its “Driving Sensors” And Offered New Driving And Parking Opportunities To The Pilots. Driving Distances For The Pilots Who Also Used The Service Increased Eight-Fold, Showing The World That I-Road Has Potential In Other Cities.
The Brief: Traffic Congestion, Limited Parking, And Exorbitant Parking Costs. As The Number Of Cars On The Road In Tokyo Increase, Its No Longer Convenient To Drive; Its More Challenging To Get Around By Car. Tokyo Grew Before The Automobile, Leaving Countless Narrow Roads And Buildings Packed Into Small Spaces. The City Has Grown To The Point That Building Larger Roads And Parking Areas Is No Longer An Option. Therefore, We Developed A Different Kind Of Car And Service That Would Change What People Think About Urban Mobility. A New Solution To Traffic Congestion And Limited Parking.
The Strategy: Riddled With Capillary-Like Backstreets, Tokyo Has Many Small Roads That Cars Cant Travel With Spaces Too Small For Parking. To Bring A Sense Of Freedom Back To Driving, A Vehicle That Was Capable Of Leaning Into Tight Turns Would Be A Game-Changer. We Developed The Ultra-Compact, Three-Wheeled I-Road Ev, Which Is Capable Of Driving On These Roads And Parking In Small Spaces, Together With A Parking Service To Help Drivers Find Hidden Parking Areas In Tokyo, And The Open Road Project Had Begun. More Than A Car, A Car, And A Service Might Help Answer The Problems Many Cities Face Regarding Traffic
The Execution: The Original Open Road Project Lasted A Year Using The I-Road Concept Car In Tandem With Its Parking Service. Each Month Anyone From The General Public Could Log In To The Website And Apply To Become A Test Pilot On Tokyo Roads. The Pilots Were Motivated And Enjoyed Driving The I-Road, And The More They Drove, The More Data We Collected. We Collected Both Behavioral And Vehicle Data Daily From The “Driving Sensor”. The Project Evolved Into A Detailed Way To Find The Best Parking Spots, The Best Areas To Find Spots, And Even Parking Simulations, Turning It Into An Extremely Accurate Service.
The Result: We Monitored The Test Pilots Driving And Used Data To Update Potential Parking Areas. Pilots Put Many Of Tokyos Unused Spaces To Use For Parking. When Pilots Drove The I-Road Without The Parking Service, They Drove On Average 60 Kilometers Per Month. However, A Half Year Into The Project After The Service Started, Pilots Were Averaging Over 480 Kilometers Per Month, An Eightfold Increase, Turning A Concept Car Into A Practical Vehicle For Urban Mobility. The I-Road With Its Service Could Potentially Solve The Traffic Problems Many Large Cities Face. Furthermore, The Projects Reach Extended Beyond Japan To Other Cities That Face Similar Difficulties. On Youtube, Underneath The Over 5.7 Million Views Marker, Many Commenters Expressed The Desire To See An Open Road Project In Their Town.