The Campaign

Turning Test Driving into 'Taste Driving'. In order to match the lifestyle rhythms of Japanese businessmen with long working hours and limited free time, coffee and gum with "test driving taste" were developed to allow potential customers to experience the feeling of having had a test drive in a short period of time. For example, the powerful driving performance became the powerful body of the coffee. The smoothness of the ride became the smoothness of the coffee. As the Prius is a hybrid vehicle, the coffee was a hybrid blend of Colombian and Ethiopian beans. The refreshing experience of driving in a Prius was created through the refreshing mint flavor gum. The very development of the concept of Taste Driving functioned as a media that encouraged people to understand the driving performance with consumers asking questions on social media such as "does this taste really represent the Prius driving performance?”

Creative Execution

Lotte is Japan's biggest manufacturer of gum and Bluebottle Coffee is a coffee shop popular among young people. The products were developed in collaboration with these two companies. The gum and coffee developers test drove the Prius and spent three months creating the Taste Driving taste. Firstly, a product launch was held for the Taste Driving coffee. The coffee was actually sold at the coffee shop. For one month, the product was continually sold out, and people who read the news and thought the product then spread the word about Taste Driving on social media. Once the coffee was a hot topic, the Test Driving gum was also released, and the gum was also given away free to consumers at 5000 Toyota dealerships across Japan. The number of people who actually applied for test drives increased, with consumers wanting to confirm the relationship between the taste and the vehicle's drivability.

More than 300 of Japan's major online news media featured this campaign. The campaign also resulted in debates and differences of opinion on social media with some people saying such as “The products was delicious. Both the car and the gum were smooth” or “Does it really reflect taste of the Prius?” or “What would happen if you actually test drove the car.” Many of the target consumers developed an interest in the Prius' driving performance and the degree of interest in the vehicle increased by 35%. The proportion of potential customers taking test drives also increased by 53%, reaching its highest ever level. The campaign succeeded in proving that even busy Japanese people can be encouraged to change their perceptions and take action. Following the campaign, domestic sales of the Prius increased by 94.9% year-on-year. Prius succeeded in becoming the number one selling vehicle in Japan during 2016.

Behind this campaign was the need to address the issue of encouraging Japanese people, who are usually busy due to long working hours, to test drive the Prius in order to eliminate the perception of the Prius as an 'ordinary' drive. Taking these social factors into consideration, it was decided to develop a new product through collaboration with another company rather than running an advertising campaign.As shown by the huge success in achieving a 53% increase in the number of consumers taking test drives, creating new media and encouraging actual test drives is an appropriate topic for the Media Department.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The target of the campaign was businessmen who already owned a small car produced by other manufacturers. These businessmen are extremely busy with their work, have no time for test drives, and were not interested in the Prius. However, an analysis of their consumer habits concluded that more than 70% of these businessmen always chew gum or drink coffee while they are at work. Furthermore, it was found that when new products were released, they frequently enjoyed discussing the new tastes and flavors with their friends. It was also found that during their lunch break and while traveling, these businessmen use their smart phones to look at online news sites. Therefore, it was decided to turn the new gum and coffee products into our "media experience", which could be used to represent the feeling of test driving the Prius.