• by Karl Greenberg , November 20, 2013

Toyota, which has been doing teen safety programs and resources for a decade, has just launched its biggest such campaign to date under its "Let's Go Places" brand campaign. Called TeenDrive365, the effort includes video content, online tools and advice, and national events about distracted driving. There is also a consumer content video competition dangling $15,000.

The campaign includes a new spot running on sites like Hulu and ABC.com, designed to drive parents to the new Web site. The ad creative shows rites of passage and mile markers on the road to adulthood up to the ending -- the first time a teenager gets behind the wheel.  

Via digital agency 360i, RLM Finsbury PR, and Grand Rapids, Mich.-based non-profit the PEERS Foundation, the effort includes a driving simulator experiential element that Toyota brought to the Los Angeles Auto Show, and was at TedYouth in New Orleans over the weekend, where the conference's "iReporters" interviewed young participants about distractions and driving and then reported their findings on stage at the event. 

The campaign is being supported by a national radio, online video, display, mobile and paid social advertising campaign, per Toyota, which says the effort will also be promoted across Toyota’s branded social communities, including on Facebook and Twitter.

In addition to the virtual reality driving simulators, the national events have parent-teen driving education courses, and other elements Marjorie Schussel, corporate marketing director for Toyota, tells Marketing Daily that Toyota will run the safety events across the country, including at concerts. "We have been doing this for 10 years, but the idea here is to bring together the work we have been doing and the research we are doing to one place. "It's really designed to bring together and amplify the work we have been doing."

The goal is to get parents to model good driving behavior with the premise that kids can be taught how to avoid a  "Rebel Without A Cause" approach to driving by participating in the driving education process. The campaign is driven by data from a study developed by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and Toyota's Collaborative Safety Research Center. 

The automaker is also running an "Arrive in Style" integration with Teen Vogue to raise awareness of the dangers of distracted driving among teenage girls. The site also touts the Scion xB car.