• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, April 27, 2016

Men’s lifestyle publisher Thrillist is plunging into branded video with a new custom-produced series of long-form programming to promote Toyota’s new RAV4, highlighting the vehicle’s on-road and off-road versatility with a number of outdoors adventures and “bucket list” type adventures.

Created by Thrillist’s CoLab in-house studio in collaboration with Toyota’s agency of record, Saatchi & Saatchi, the branded video series takes viewers on a series of “bucket list” type adventures, all enabled by the RAV4 Hybrid’s sturdy construction and precise handling.

Thrillist vice president of integrated marketing Paul Josephsen explained: “The idea is that life is a short and you want to experience it the best you can, and Toyota is the brand to help you do that.”

Josephsen went on: “Unlike some of our earlier work, which has tended to be more quick-hitting, this video is longer form, but it’s action-packed, to get your heart racing,” for example, with once-in-a-lifetime adventures like swimming with sharks in a shark cage, skydiving, and an experience in a “human hamster ball.”

However, the campaign also features a promotional push using short-form versions of the content tailored for social platforms.

The entire process for the multipart series took just a few months, with the idea first broached in late January followed by production and editing in February, all completed within less than a month.

Looking ahead, Thrillist’s CoLab plans to begin producing custom video content for other big brands and is building out its video production capabilities. “We want to be in a place where there’s an expertise that’s associated with Thrillist because of the way we create content. We already have that for written and visual side, and we have it on the short-form video side – now we want it for the long-form branded video content,” Josephsen says.

The Thrillist branded-content campaign is just the latest component in Toyota’s marketing efforts targeting affluent millennial consumers through niche and lifestyle publications.

Last year, the car maker took over the entire December print issue of Mental Floss magazine to promote its new 2016 Tacoma with dozens of ads using the tagline “Play Now," including 18 one-third page ads, six full-pages and four different covers.