• by Karl Greenberg , Staff Writer, October 7, 2015

I just had breakfast with an 18-year-old son of a friend of mine, a jazz musician in college at Eastman, stopping by the city to see his dad. I could tell he was a little tired of talking music theory, so his dad asked me if I'm still reviewing cars. “I don't really do that. I write about the marketing.” “Really, that's pretty obscure.” 

I had to laugh at that, given the fact that he works in some arcane lab at Microsoft creating a virtual god-knows-what. It is always refreshing to explain to someone completely outside the business what I do (or pretend to do, depending on the case). It's like when my dad used to come into our 5th grade class to tell the kids what he does for a living. 

So I gave my friend an example of what a story might involve. Say, a campaign for a new Toyota vehicle, right off the blocks. What's the competition? Who's buying it? What's the best way to reach people? How do you get around the fact that people don't pay attention to ads? When I got into how companies have figured out that ads have to be “engaging content” that makes you want to watch it as much as you want to watch that Miley Cyrus video, my friend’s kid perked up. “That's right! It has to be something crazy! Like YouTube!”

I'm like everyone else: I'm staring at the lower right corner, finger poised on the mouse pad for the second the “Skip” square appears. I'll click it unless it's a movie trailer or (rarely) something I get drawn into. Usually not a car ad. But yesterday, I ended up watching an ad straight through. It was a new spot for the 2016 Toyota Tacoma mid-size pickup. People doing crazy antics in the mud, out in the desert, Mad Max in a Tacoma, chased by motocross riders, bicycles flipping into lakes, couches going down dunes on skis. 

I've seen automotive ads by the dozen that show young millennials acting out. Sometimes with surfboards, sometimes at a dance rave, or clubbing. Or skateboarding. What works? Tony Hawk skating with a Mini; Ken Bloch drifting in a Fiesta; or consumer-content efforts where people are encouraged to create their own craziness. 

Toyota’s campaign is very much about video, both the launch ads and a raft of footage pitting NASCAR racers against each other out in the desert, in Tacomas.  John Payne, creative director at Saatchi L.A., explained to me that the key is drawing people in with extreme footage, while showing a touch of vehicle features. “There are little subtle things you see, like when the guy behind the wheel switches from two-wheel to four-high; and in another shot he reaches and grabs the emergency brake handle to add extra braking power.” That is meant to convey a certain cachet around hand braking as an off-road technique, something you can't do with a foot-kick e-brake, he says. "When they see it, they should get the sense that the truck is fun and a blast to drive." 

I stumbled on Andrew Follett's Video Brewery site recently. He has a tip-list for video creation with some interesting tidbits. Among his data points: He cites Online Publishers Association data saying 80% of Internet users recall watching a video ad on a website they visited in the past 30 days. Of those people, nearly half took some action after viewing the ad. And he says Forbes Insight reports that 59% of senior executives would rather watch a video than read text. And about 65% of those who view a video click through to visit the vendor website. 

For automotive buyers, the journey is longer. But it starts with a nudge to recognize a need or desire you may not know you have. Or you may not have it until you watch an entertaining video.