Sales
of Toyota's hybrid car, Prius, have dropped precipitously, as the car has reached the end of its cycle -- and just as Honda launches the competitive Insight hybrid, the only other car model that
is only offered as a hybrid. Now, Toyota is launching its new Prius and backing it with a national campaign that focuses on digital, social media, product integration and out-of-home elements.
The new push for the third-generation Prius, by Saatchi & Saatchi, Los Angeles and called "Harmony Between Man, Nature and Machine," continues a theme Toyota has applied to Prius
since the second generation launched in 2003: Prius means you can be green, and get great mileage without sacrificing space or performance.
There are two elements to the OOH campaign. The
first is a series of flower-themed sculptures incorporating public seating and free solar-powered WiFi servers, and cell phone and laptop charging stations. The "Flowerscape" sculptures will
to be placed in parks and other public spaces.
Toyota will retrofit public bus stops with solar panels on the roof partially powering fans hidden in the advertising; people can push buttons
on the ads to activate the fans. The shelters are intended to demonstrate how the new Prius's solar roof helps cool the parked vehicle. The flower sculptures and solar ventilation bus shelters
debut in early July and travel to a half-dozen large cities across the country over the summer and early fall.
"None of this is firm yet, but we're hoping to do four markets for
the solar cooling bus shelters -- possibly Boston, Chicago, L.A. and San Francisco," says a Saatchi rep. "For the solar flowers, six markets, including New York and Seattle."
In California, Toyota will have billboards festooned with flowers. The campaign includes campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and HowStuffWorks, integrated with other sites and Toyota's consumer sites.
Says the Saatchi representative for the team: "The programs are far deeper in nature than anything we have done before in the social space. They require efforts from both Toyota and
the agency to be able to respond quickly and efficiently to consumer conversations. Instead of a launch effort, this is managing an ongoing relationship with enthusiasts and intenders on platforms
such as Facebook and Twitter.
"It's the first time we will be using Twitter. We are aiming to use this not just as a marketing vehicle but as a two-way communication tool."
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The agency says the emphasis is in using the power of existing enthusiasts and owner communities to field an array of questions on the Prius. "All our efforts, whether they are
social or more traditional in nature, have been planned to have no dead ends -- meaning a lot of thought has gone into making it easy for people to take the step to lower in the funnel from any
medium/platform," says the agency. The rep says HowStuffWorks will use Facebook Connect to broadcast articles that talk about hybrid, solar panels, etc. And Facebook, in turn, will feature tools
and applications that will fuel discussion and interaction, and at the same time drive interest in the vehicle to Toyota.com.
Toyota's digital push will start in late May on MSN and
Yahoo with home page takeovers on May 28 and June 15, respectively. There is also a "Prius experience" site on www.toyota.com, a mobile Web site, banners, site sponsorships and custom
programs. A mobile campaign will begin this summer.
As for traditional media, the TV isn't so traditional. The ads, created by Japanese auteur Hideaki Hosono, show a utopian landscape
made entirely of people -- the sun, clouds and blades of grass are depicted by people moving in unison.
A forthcoming print campaign features people creating the moon and sun. "When
we're not using the people in our communications -- an example would be the outdoor boards -- we keep the environments extremely clean and beautiful. A hyper-reality of what's possible if we
all drove cars like this," says the Saatchi rep.
The TV spot will run a series of season finales, starting with Monday's finale of "Castle" on ABC, followed by ABC's
"Lost" and NBC's "30 Rock." Product integration efforts will run on Discovery, Bravo, TNT, TBS and USA, and print ads are in Fast Company, Wired, Time and The
Week, along with mass-reach publications. The car will also be in the Summer Dew Tour, a number of music festivals and the Life Time Fitness Series Race.
The Torrance, Calif.-based
automaker, which reported a 42.2% decline in U.S. sales for its Toyota division in April, saw a 61% drop in Prius sales for the month to 8,385 units and a 49% drop in Prius sales for the first four
months to 32,662 units. Honda sold 2,096 of its Insight hybrid in April, Honda's first sales month for the car, and 3,361 Civic Hybrid cars.