The Campaign

Young generations are losing their interests in cars and the situation seems not to improve. Toyota, especially, is seen as 'boring' brand. Our challenge is for the young generations to think of cars as 'exciting'. To turn on the switch of interests of the young generations for cars by using Web streaming services which young ones are being crazy about (60% out of 9million UU/month is under the age of 30). 'Real Car-Shogi' 10-hour live broadcast. We combined 'cars' with 'Shogi,' the beloved Japanese board game played for more than 1,000 years, and created a board that was 14,000 times the size of an ordinary one. In the game of 'Real Car-Shogi', real Toyota cars are used as Shogi pieces. Top Japanese shogi players control the car which were driven by TOYOTA car test driver in the first-ever entertainment of its kind. 'Real Car-Shogi' linked young people and cars. Over 500,000 comments were recorded from viewers during the live broadcast. The program triggered more than 40,000 tweets in one day, successfully entering the Trend ranking. Furthermore, over 20,000 young people visited TOYOTA's website during the live broadcast in via the banner. Incidentally, the related video achieved 2.5 million views. The event was covered by various news media, gathering attention nation-wide. The publicity impact equals to US$ 5 million approximately.

The Brief

Our goal of this campaign is to arouse the desire of young generation to own a car and for them to choose Toyota, by encouraging them to think 'Having a car is nice.' and 'Toyota is cool.'

Results

20,000 people visited Toyota's web site, checking the details of models, from banner placed during the live broadcast. The event successfully aroused interests and actions for Toyota. 200,000 people voted for the models of Toyota cars which people wanted to see as Shogi pieces in the match. The campaign became a buzz and listed as a trend on twitter on 8th Feb. AM. The number of posts on twitter with the word 'Real Car-Shogi' included counted up to 40,000. Related video achieved 2.5 million views. Advertising exposure worth US$5 million. （TV・Radio：15 stations, newspaper/magazines：21 media, WEB：258 media）

Execution

26th Nov：News Release The announcement of 'Real-car Shogi' was sent thorough news release. 'Biggest match in the history' was the key word to make this event the news. Nov. – Dec：Voting for car models Special website was set to vote for the models of Toyota cars which people wanted to see as Shogi pieces in the match. Jan：Releasing teaser video Multiple versions of teaser video were released. End of Jan：Push! Not only promoting to cover the day of the event, articles inciting the event were also promoted prior. 8th Feb：The day of the event The match was broadcast live for 10 hours. During the broadcast, variety of guests from different genre came on stage. 22th Feb：Special edition released 10 hours of the live broadcast was edited down to 45 minutes with unreleased scenes.

The Situation

Since 1990s, the number of cars sold in Japan is in a constant decline. This is due to mix of various reasons such as, aging population, change in family structure, concentrating population in the heart of the cities, downturn of consumer spending etc. but among all, loss of interests in cars from young generation is remarkable.

The Strategy

Provide live broadcasting of the match on a Web platform which young generation is crazy about. The pieces (or the models) of Shogi are chosen by internet voting prior to the event. Develop PR activities towards multiple media such as newspapers, TVs and Web, fully utilizing the original idea which has never been heard of before. Produce multiple version of teaser video and promoted the event proactively using 'Nico-Nico-douga' and owned media such as YouTube, LINE, Facebook and Twitter.