Category: Titanium and Integrated
Advertiser: TOYOTA
Product/Service: TOYOTA YARIS
Agency: SAATCHI & SAATCHI LA
Executive Creative Director: Chris Adams (Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles)
Executive Creative Director: Margaret Keene (Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles)
Creative Director: Michael Tabtabai (Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles)
Assistant Creative Director/Art Director: Nicole Mcdonald (Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles)
Copywriter: Julia Regan/Matty Poitras (Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles)
Designer: David Hsia/Adhemas Batista (Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles)
Director Of Inegrated Production/Multimedia: Tanya Lesieur (Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles)
Executive Producer: Matthew Kinney (Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles)
Broadcast Producer: Chris Webb (Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles)
Senior Integrated Producer: David Davison (Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles)
Integrated Producer: Jamye Graham (Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles)
Asscoiate Interactive Producer: Sasha Koehn (Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles)
Associate Integrated Producer: Andrew Slough (Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles)
Creative Technology Director: Chris Kief (Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles)
Creative Technology Lead: Luke Grannis (Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles)
Media Partners: (Funny Or Die/Marvel/I Can Haz Cheeseburger/Xbox)
Integrated Production Company: (Acne Production)
Editor: Gabriel Britz/Damion Clayton (Rock Paper Scissors)
Finish/Special Effects: (A52)
Music/Sound Design/Mix: (Dinahmoe)
Media placement: Web films - Online Channel - 8 September 2011
Describe the campaign/entry
The Yaris is Toyota’s low-end economy offering. Compared to the fun colours, youthful image and nifty features of other cars in the segment, it is significantly lacking. Our mission was to move 40,000 units without any TV or print media. The entire campaign had to be digital.
Considering the lackluster nature of the car along with the fact that our only channel was digital, we decided to reach out to nerds. Nerds don’t care about fancy cars in the first place. They also spend most of their time online. The challenge was creating content that resonated with these incredibly smart people who can sniff out a phony in 2 seconds. Our 'nerd-speak' needed to be very genuine. We had to become nerds ourselves. Good thing that we already were. Nerds, that is.
Describe how the campaign/entry was launched across each channel in the order of implementation
itsacar.com is a one of a kind Google Chrome experiment built with the latest buzz technology including HTML5, WebGL, real-time physics, adaptive sound, CSS3 and multi-user socket communication. A looping tour video of the car plays while multiple users can interact with the site simultaneously. Comedian Michael Showalter dryly walks users through the 'features' of the car such as wheels, windows and cup holders. Along with being able to alter the behaviour of the host and the nature of the content, savvy users have the ability to grab all the open source code and recreate the site to their liking.
Give some idea of how successful this campaign/entry was with both client and consumer
We reached 80% of our sales goal by November alone. An over whelming majority of website traffic came from earned media. Twitter blew up with great comments like:
"just watched @mshowalter car commercial with girlfriend and she laughed a fart out. 1st time ive heard her fart in 3 yrs. thank you!"
"I'm completely willing to sell all my Earthly posesions and my own mother in order to purchase a Toyota. Thanks, @mshowalter."
"Yes. I am now a fan of Michael Showalter and the Toyota Yaris. Thanks advertising: http://t.co/l0T7fjhf"
This is lifestyle branding 101, but twisted to fit the web in new way. We celebrated the simplicity of the car, and we were able to take some big risks with the medium, as well as the sarcasm. This is one of those great examples of a brand being true to its target without worrying about what anyone else may think.