WAKUDOKI

TitleWAKUDOKI
BrandTOYOTA MOTOR ASIA PACIFIC
Product / ServiceTOYOTA MOTOR ASIA PACIFIC
CategoryA10. Brand voice (incl. strategic storytelling)
EntrantDENTSU SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Entrant Company DENTSU SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Advertising Agency DENTSU SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Advertising Agency 2 DENTSU Tokyo, JAPAN
Production Company TYO Tokyo, JAPAN

Credits

Name Company Position
Ted Lim Dentsu Aegis Network Chief Creative Officer
Heok Seong Ng Dentsu Singapore Executive Creative Director
Norifumi Adachi Denstu Inc. Executive Creative Director
Fredrick Englund Dentsu Asia Digital Creative Director
Sean Mathews Dentsu Singapore Planning Director
Iwata Masaki Dentsu Singapore Digital Director
Taira Kimura Dentsu Singapore Account Director
Hiroshi Sato Dentsu Singapore Media Director
Yoichiro Abe Dentsu Inc. Creative Director
Yoichiro Abe Dentsu Inc. Copywriter
Yusuke Koyanagi Dentsu Inc. Art Director
Yoshinari Kamiya Kamiya Jimusho Film Director
Tsuyoshi Kanekiyo Dentsu Inc Agency Producer
Atsushi Kajiya TYO Inc. Production Producer
Takashi Yamaguchi Dentsu Inc. Account Executive
Asako Yamamoto Dentsu Inc. Account Executive
Shinpei Okamoto Dentsu Singapore Senior Account Manager
Yuko Watanabe Dentsu Singapore Senior Account Manager
Chuya Aoki Dentsu Singapore Strategic Planner
Hiromitsu Kaibuki Dentsu Singapore Digital Media Manager

The Campaign

Toyota is a hugely familiar brand in terms of overall awareness, however, closer evaluation of brand health based on the ability to drive initial consideration through to final conversion saw significant variance across markets from 25.5% in Philippines, up to 50% in Thailand (TMAP Research, 2013), but all bound together by a common theme: the people who really matter in the final conversion stage, those who buy the product, were consistently skewing above 35 years of age. Whilst Toyota continued to do well with their traditional target, they simply weren’t attracting enough of the younger market into the initial consideration set and then on to final conversion. This we sought to change because the young are a vital part of Toyota’s future. Evaluation of Toyota’s brand health amongst younger audiences revealed some telling findings: In South East Asia, Toyota is the category leader, however an increasing number of young people were gravitating towards competition primarily because of better perceived design and higher relevance to younger audiences. As a high growth market for Toyota it was important for Toyota to dramatically connect with the younger audiences and create a positive word of mouth for Toyota and reflect attributes such as fun to drive, exciting, stylish car. All in all, it was time for Toyota to make a U-turn and reverse the ageing process through a PR led campaign that would increase the consideration set and share of voice for Toyota amongst younger audiences.

The Brief

Our first objective was to shift the perception of Toyota from being “an Uncle’s car” to being liked by the youth. Hence the series of KPI’s identified were: • Increase brand LIKING - a composite score of four attributes cool, young, exciting and fun to drive from 39% pre campaign analysis. (Toyota Motors Asia Pacific Research, 2013) • Liking should have a positive impact on consideration for the brand amongst the young audience • Drive higher levels of engagement for the brand and achieve the hard KPI of 1.2 million video views. • Maximize ROI for the campaign initiative by improving upon current Cost per View of $0.96. (Toyota Motors Asia Pacific past campaign benchmark)

Results

The Wakudoki campaign set new standards for Toyota with our key markets recording an overwhelming increase of 13% in consideration in Philippines, 10% in Indonesia and 5% in Thailand. The campaign struck a massive chord on social media delivering: • Over 1.7million video views on YouTube (an 864% increase over target) • Over 35k shares via YouTube (exceeding target by 153%) and over 12k individual comments • Over 199k individual engagements on the Waku Doki Facebook page • Over 26.5k additional fans into the Facebook page (98% of whom were under 34 years old) • Over 200 User Generated dance videos. • And $2.5m global earned PR value including TV News spots in Thailand. The icing on the cake for viral engagement was when we played this song as a guerilla PR strategy in clubs in Thailand and party-goers started the signature step of Wakudoki confirming the success of the campaign amongst youth. From there the song and dance step did rounds at clubs across the region.

Execution

To connect with our younger target audience, we didn't just create an advertisement, we decided to create the next 'Gangam Style'.We collaborated with Japanese Pop sensation World Order to create a unique Wakudoki video that comprised a signature dance step and a fun, exciting and memorable tune along with irreverent humour. We invited our audience to do the Wakudoki dance with us, and participate in a dance contest that gave them the chance to Wakudoki their way to Tokyo. An interactive contest microsite enabled participants to learn and practice the Waku-Doki step and submit user-generated entries as part of the contest.

The Situation

We needed a new anchor for our communication that would help drive consideration amongst these younger buyers but we faced a number of significant challenges: • Young people are highly digitally connected and we we lacked first mover advantage • Toyota needed to maintain sales to their current buyer profile and so targeting this new audience was seen as a risk.

The Strategy

Asia boasts a rapidly growing population of 20-somethings with both the desire and ability to buy a car. Style-conscious, sociable, fun and independent they embrace a strong sense of personality and individuality coupled with an irreverent streak. They also plan ahead, beginning to create a consideration list of potentially acceptable brands way before they can afford to purchase. Our research showed that they gravitate towards brands that help them discover the next authentically cool, fun thing. We knew our younger audience felt that the life of a Toyota driver, was run of the mill, predictable and safe. However there’s a facet of Toyota’s philosophy that few know about; Toyota want to build cars that take people to a life of excitement, a life that is cool, fun, young and exciting. We call this Wakudoki (“Waku-Waku” when you heart jumps for joy & “Doki-Doki” the sound of your heartbeat). We knew this territory could be leveraged to help deliver the new and the cool that our audience craved.