• by Karl Greenberg , January 7, 2009

Toyota's Scion division is extending its "United by Individuality" effort, launched last summer, with new TV, outdoor, print, and online ads by Dentsu-owned Attik. Two initial spots, one each for the xB, and tC models, show modified versions of the vehicles sliced and diced to show how owners personalized them. The effort also includes print ads in lifestyle publications, in-cinema ads, and major-market billboards take the same approach.

The earlier campaign, whose introduction was timed with the division's fifth anniversary, showed owners gathered at a desert event with their modified Scions. The new spots focus on variety, with puzzle-like creative set to electronica.

The ads will air on non-traditional, late-night cable programming, and niche publications. Simon Needham, Attik's creative director, who oversaw the brand's launch in 2003, says this is just the beginning of big changes in Scion creative this year. "We are going to turn the whole thing upside down again," he says. "Our intention is to stand even further out from the crowd."

Needham says "United by Individuality" represented a shift from what had, until then, been a strict focus on the cars themselves. "It's more about community now," he says. Scion reports there are over 675,000 Scion owners in the U.S. "We brought in the owners and presented them as the brand's heroes. This time we took the same brief and did something completely different." The new ads use profile shots taken of 60 of the vehicles that owners brought to the desert event last summer. "We wanted to keep it as authentic as possible."

Print ads, which have not appeared yet, include gatefold and spread executions, and special executions with a "Band of others" headline that are full-page, front-and-back ads showing highly modified xB, tC and xD cars. That magazine ad includes a tab that, when pulled, changes the vehicles' modifications. Another similar ad is an origami-style gatefold spread featuring elongated Scions made up of different sections. Folding instructions direct readers to create manifolds on the page that show two different Scions, depending on angle of view.

Four TV ads will run on channels like CTV, Sports Illustrated TV, Comedy Central, Adult Swim and Fuel. There will also be one in-cinema spot showing the three models, and eight print ads will run in some 20 lifestyle, music, arts and culture publications like Revolver, Juxtapoz and Big Shot.

"There's no doubt we are still focusing on the core target; overall, we are not trying to broaden our target audience," says Needham. "We don't want to water down the brand."