It seems as though everybody is finally catching on to the difference between a passive and a captive, participant audience. And it also seems as though Toyota is taking a hint from its little brother branch-off, Scion (See what I mean by checking out my old Scion Post). The Yaris, Toyota’s bottom-rung, most modestly-priced model, seems to be Toyota’s attempt at reaching generation Y, something that Scion has been doing better than most companies ever have. You can even see this in the car’s description on Toyota’s Web site, which sounds extremely youth-oriented; it speaks about the different kinds of Yaris’s…or Yari, however you want to pluralize it, when it says:
“Both flavors come complete with available MP3/WMA playback capability. They boast a bottomless pit of center pockets, cup holders, console trays, map pockets to satisfy just about any multitasker. And the all-new Yaris Liftback S screams style from the get-go, thanks to its sport seats, amber-illuminated Optitron gauges, and leather-trimmed steering wheel and shift knobs. Regardless of which model you roll with, you’ll appreciate exceptional gas mileage ratings, up to 36 mpg highway, so there’ll always be enough dough left over to extend that much-needed road trip. The 2008 Yaris. May the fun begin.”
So, it makes sense that they continue to push this model to the youth, and they are using unconventional methods to do so. Most recently, they have spent a couple mil’ having their agency, Saatchi & Saatchi L.A. work with production company Backbone Entertainment (which created the Sonic the Hedgehog concept and games) to create the first-ever advergame to be distributed through Microsoft’s online gaming service. In fact, you can download the new game for free. Not too shabby. And also, they have been gaining some pretty tremendous publicity based on this game (well played Toyota PR department), making it into the NY Times in This Article.
Kim McCullough, corporate manager for marketing communications at Toyota, drives home a message that I completely endorse when she says: “People can time shift, they can do all sorts of different things to avoid advertising. That’s why we have to move beyond traditional advertising to do things that are really engaging for people.” Nice. Toyota is making some good moves these days. To learn a bit more about this advergame, you can find tons of articles released in the past few days by going to Google and searching for “Yaris Advergame” in the news section, or This Article, or click on the link to the NY Times article mentioned above.
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