Case_study_3_Toyota by Anastasia Bakhmutova

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THIS WEEK 5 MIN CASE STUDY: Entry:

Toyota Sponsafier

Client:

Toyota

Agency: Saatchi and Saatchi LA Challenge in the Market: NASCAR fans have long pledged their allegiance to the American-made cars that dominate the tracks. In order to grow the brand, Toyota needed to start appealing to this audience. But simply winning races isn't enough. Toyota had to find a way to get these import-resistant fans to actually interact with their vehicles. Strategy: Toyota's long-time fan tracking study showed that NASCAR fans are heavily involved with social media. Nothing proved this better than witnessing the fan support when Kenny Wallace lost his ride for the Montreal race. Word got out online that if each fan donated $20, they could get Kenny back in the race. 5,000 people became his "sponsors". That told Toyota they could interact with the fans online but the pay-off had to be something juicy. Why be just 1/5,000th of a fan; why not have your very own car.

Description: Toyota Sponsafier became a NASCAR-themed site at toyotaracing.com that allowed participants to design their own race Camry. Graphic elements were made available or participants could upload their own to design in 3D. But the most exciting part was the contest extension. The winning design would become the Grand Marshall car at the Charlotte race. Fans would post their entries on the site but what really took off was their involvement of sharing their designs on Facebook and Twitter in order to drum up votes for their Camry from among their friends. Results: Over 6,000,000 page views were recorded 70,000 fans submitted designs The level of engagement and involvement were completely unexpected and unanticipated. 110,000 of a formerly uninvolved fan base signed-up to become registered users of toyotaracing.com These same formerly reticent fans became collaborators and evangelists for the Toyota site There were over 250,000 incidences of sharing on Facebook, with designers asking their friends to check-out the site, try it out for themselves and, of course, vote for their specially-designed Camry Over 1.3 million fans voted Additional Comments: To date, there are now 101,000 designs in the gallery, 150,000 registered users, 857,000 total shares and an unbelievable 9.9MM+ views. So popular was this effort that a second contest was introduced to coincide with NASCAR's "Chase for the Cup" that will culminate this season with the last race in Homestead.

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

Weekly Experts: Ryan Lee

Social Media Strategist Mekanism (USA)

Jonas Nielsen

Managing Partner

Mindjumpers (Denmark)

Meet with our Expert Analysts. Their Comments: National pride in consumption is a reality for international marketers. Here, a Japanese car manufacturer has to break into a protectionist market and chooses to address the NASCAR audience. "The campaign performed extremely well in registering users to toyotaracing.com." Says Ryan. "Having an interactive app for designing custom cars is a good way to keep users engaged on site. The use of "sharing" on Facebook and Twitter to drive voting is smart. Most of all, winning design will appear as Grand Marshall car design on national TV is an incentive that is adapted and worked well for the target audience." A result of 110,000 new signups for a niche market is impressive. But the Saatchi&Saatchi LA campaign went even further. "Toyota asked real people and got involved in real life: that's where the real stories are. This is how social media can start great possibilities." Says Jonas. Something new happened in the season 2; something special. "Toyota's promotion revealed recently the new winning entry: Camry design from Jeff Hallowell and his son Ethan. In 2002, Jeff was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). He is, today, in a wheel chair communicating with the world through an eye tracking technology system. Visit http://www.toyotaracing.com/ and see an unbelievable video story of an American family (video: Sponsafy Your Ride 2 Contest Winner)." Once again, Toyota proves to leverage the strengths of social media marketing and creates another opportunity to connect with hard fans of NASCAR. Toyota's Sponsafier work shows great ability to engage and involve people. One thing that could be improved though, according to our expert analysts, is how to convert into Brand Ambassadors the newly involved NASCAR fans? Jonas suggests: "With the engagement they received from the young generation, they should now leverage a social game on Facebook platform. Social games are something that we will see a lot in the future, especially from bold and edgy brands."

A mobile app would also be suited for the younger audience. Once you have involved consumers, you must provide them with tools to promote your brand. Social games are great to engage and compete with friends. Toyota's Sponsafy Your Ride contest shows impressive results. The story of the recent winners goes even further than engagement with an audience of consumers: It is moving and inspiring. Jonas comments: "Will this NASCAR generation grow up thinking about Toyota as a Japanese brand? Not likely!" Or at least, results prove that it will not limit much the customers' behavior. Liked this analysis? Tell your friends and co-workers, forward this email. They can subscribe at: http://www.beesawards.com/bees/subscribe. We send new case studies every Monday - Only by email!

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