I certainly picked a good week to go away. The advertising industry was quiet. Really quiet. But I did miss one very encouraging event last week - the Toyota Camry 2002 campaign launch.
There
seems to be a good amount of buzz surrounding this launch and with good reason. The online portion of the campaign, featuring a wealth of advertising n AOL and MSN, is said to be the largest in the
company's history.
Steve Jett, Toyota's national car advertising manager, says 5% of Toyota's entire ad budget of well over $150 million will be spent online.
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He said, "We've used traditional online advertising in the past, but we want to take it to another level. With the enormous
complexities of the launch, we want to make sure we have an online presence like never before."
And Toyota isn't the only traditional advertiser taking the web for a spin. The Camry has paved
the road for other auto manufacturers - Nissan North America Inc. and Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America Inc. launched campaigns for their own mainstream cars: the 2002 Altima and 2002 Lancer.
Both companies are reportedly spending more money on these launches than on any previous launch. And both campaigns have a sizable online component.
And who said traditional advertisers aren't
giving the web its fair share of media budgets?