Advertising Case Study

Adrian Lim, Regional Marketing Manager for Toyota

Toyota Hybrid Synergy DriveCompany Background

Toyota is the world’s leading car manufacturer and

the name behind brands such as Camry, Corolla and

the best-selling Prius hybrid. A pioneer in hybrid

technology, Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive combines

different power sources to maximize each of their

strengths. Saatchi & Saatchi is a full-service, integrated

communications network that’s in the business of

creating loyalty beyond reason for its client’s brands.

Objective

Toyota had a couple of key objectives for the Facebook

campaign that ran between May and June of 2011.

It wanted to raise awareness of its unique hybrid

technology—a new approach for a company that

typically markets specific car models. “We wanted to

actually look into how people would become advocates

for the technology in the future, when we introduce

more hybrid technology into our vehicles,” says

Adrian Lim, Regional Marketing Manager for Toyota.

On a more tactical level, the company wanted to

use the campaign to build the fan base on its newly

created Facebook page—Toyota Hybrid Solutions—

to at least 6,000-strong. “If you have a fan engaging

with your brand and the community, that is more

valuable than just an impression or GRP,” says

Facebook Executive SummaryClient:

Agency:

Objective: Raise awareness of Toyota’s

unique hybrid technology and acquire

fans for a newly created Facebook page

focused on the technology

Solution: Premium Video Ads and

Sponsored Stories driving fans to

the Facebook page with a contest

to help fuel engagement

Key Lessons:

• Featuringtelevisionspotson

Facebook can amplify awareness

of a campaign and extend the

message to a broader audience.

• HoldingacontestonFacebook

that encourages users to

interact with a brand’s content

can increase engagement.

“I think we were initially skeptical about how people would respond to a site where we were not trying to sell a car

but instead trying to provide education on the brand. But this campaign has been great. We have been very excited about developing and nurturing our fan base.”

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Lauren Ahearn, Brand Director for Saatchi &

Saatchi. “We hope to communicate and listen

to our fan base and create a two-way dialogue

that will ultimately deepen brand loyalty.”

Approach

Working with Saatchi & Saatchi, Toyota devised a

360-degree campaign centred on a fun, animated

television spot highlighting hybrid technology’s

performance and fuel efficiency. At the end of the

commercial, people were encouraged to visit the

Toyota Hybrid Solutions page on Facebook to learn

more. “Everything was focused around pushing

people to the Facebook page,” says Jean-Paul

Biondi, Senior Brand Executive, Saatchi & Saatchi.

Once on Facebook, people were able to engage

with interesting content including a “Toyota Hybrid

Solutions” educational page. A unique “Match

our Solutions” contest dangled a grand prize

trip for two to the Maldives for the winner who

provided the best solution to today’s issues and

received the most votes, fueling engagement.

To drive people to the page, Toyota used Premium

Video Ads featuring the animated spot with two

different ad creatives—one with the Hybrid Synergy

Drive logo and Prius, and another with only the

logo. Toyota used target filtering on Facebook to

reach its desired audience of 21- to 35-year-olds in

countries including Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia,

Thailand and the Philippines. “It was really to

localise the language so we could better connect

with our country-specific audience,” Jean-Paul says.

Toyota followed the ads with a run of Sponsored

Stories, which increase the visibility of people’s

authentic interactions with brands on Facebook

by surfacing them on the right column of

Facebook pages. When someone liked the Toyota

Hybrid Solutions page, the action created a

Like Sponsored Story that was displayed to

that person’s friends. “It amplifies our premium

ads because it allows our friends to spread the

message and it also gets their friends to discover

and connect with the page,” says Jean-Paul.

Results

• Nearly13,000viewsofthetelevision

spot from the Facebook Ads.

• 300to400entriesperweekonthe“Matchour

Solutions” contest. “It’s been a good response

thus far each week as you actually have to

write things out to enter,” says Adrian.

• Fromzerotomorethan50,000fansduring

the three weeks that the ads ran, exceeding

expectations by more than seven-fold. The Toyota

Hybrid Solutions Page as of mid-August 2011 had

nearly 63,000 fans, meaning it could reach more

than24millionfriendsofthosefansglobally

through Friends of Connections targeting.

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• 7.4millionpeoplewerereachedbytheads

in Taiwan, Indonesia and Singapore.

• 45,000engagementswithfansinthosethree

countries during the campaign period.

“I think we were initially skeptical about how

people would respond to a site where we were not

trying to sell a car but instead trying to provide

education on the brand,” says Adrian. “But this

campaign has been great. We have been very excited

about developing and nurturing our fan base.”

Adrian adds that he’s been especially pleased with

the engagement rates he’s seen on Facebook. “I

think we have a very high engagement rate on our

page in terms of the comments that are posted by

our fans. I think that’s very positive and I think we

are definitely on the right track at this point.”

The Future

Toyota is continuing the “Match our Solutions”

contest on the Hybrid Solutions Page and is looking

at ways to leverage Facebook in the future. “I

think that moving forward, there will be some

marketing challenges across the region that we

would like to rectify using Facebook,” says Adrian.