No tired car tropes. Saatchi & Saatchi NZ has built a fun Toyota campaign on a curious piece of information instead – one in four vehicles on New Zealand roads is a Toyota. Saatchi & Saatchi agency realised that any intersection or car park across the country could be a real-life ad for Toyota. So the agency pointed that out on the next edition of the brand platform, Let’s Go Places.
In the commercial, people spot so many Toyotas that they begin to wonder if they’re unwittingly starring in a commercial. They include Black Ferns, All Blacks and other Kiwi personalities, all of whom are featured in a range of Toyota vehicles, including hybrid models, the electric bZ4X and legacy Land Cruiser LC70 and the advert also subtly underlines the vast range of Toyota’s mobility services in market. First introduced three years ago, Toyota’s original Let’s Go Places brand platform envisioned the future of mobility. The new campaign highlights the brand’s progress.
Susanne Hardy, Toyota New Zealand assistant vice president, stated, “Mobility is changing, as is the way people can access it. That’s why we are evolving from a car company into a mobility company for the future. We’re providing access to vehicles from various power-trains, in a number of ways. From hard working four-wheel drives to all electric cars, whether a customer is buying, leasing, renting or hiring by the week or the hour. ‘Let’s Go Places 2.0’ is about showcasing some of the many solutions we’re offering our customers and the role Toyota plays in connecting New Zealanders.”
Steve Cochran CCO at Saatchi & Saatchi NZ, added, “Showcasing every Toyota proof point in a single commercial could have easily turned into a manifesto-style ad, and we wanted to avoid this. Striking upon the idea of instead having all these proof points coincidently at an intersection provided a far more engaging concept to explore. From there we embraced a playful approach that lets the full range of Toyota’s innovations – from hybrid models to mobility services – shine through.”
Spark Foundry NZ led media planning, with OOH ads showcasing the film’s characters and cars. From October, it will track Toyota plate data at 11 key intersections to power live billboard counts as vehicles pass through, and drive user-generated content that invites Kiwis to share real moments with their own Toyota vehicles.
Digitas NZ led customer experience and content design, creating a unified website hub for the campaign’s audience that spotlights Toyota’s full range of mobility services – all while reinforcing its ‘Let’s Go Places’ brand message.
Scoundrel director, Tim Bullock, directed the film commercial. He commented, “When people ask where we filmed, the answer surprises them. Most of it was shot at an inconspicuous intersection just off the main road of Paeroa. This allowed us the freedom to lock things down for three days, leaving everything in place overnight. It was almost like being on a Hollywood lot and the whole town embraced us being there, they were fantastic. We then embellished the scenes in post with some footage shot in Auckland by adding buildings, traffic lights, the billboard and stuff to make it feel bigger, like it could be on the fringe of any New Zealand city.”
The campaign included collaboration with Toyota’s long-time public relationships partner, Wright Communications, across the whole of Let’s Go Places.
The campaign will roll out across a range of media channels over the next few months.
Credits
Client: Toyota
Assistant Vice President – Marketing Sustainability & Technology, Executive: Susanne Hardy
Manager, Marketing: Jamie How Brand Marketing Specialist: Kate Sutherland
Creative Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi NZ
Chief Executive Officer: Mark Cochrane
Chief Creative Officer: Steve Cochran
Executive Creative Director: Lee Sunter
Senior Art Director: Connyr Snell
Senior Copywriter: Cain Duff
General Manager: Susie Darling
Group Business Director: Kate Gyde
Business Director: Maxime Lahaye
Head of Connected Strategy: Tim Cullinane
Executive Agency Producer: Jane Mill
Head of Post Production: Tracy Powell
Junior Producer: Grace Roddick
Design Director: Shiv Narandas
Studio Manager: Shane Kelly
Retoucher: Nick Browne
Creative Service Manager: Gabrielle Pezaro
Media Agency: Spark Foundry NZ
Customer Agency: Digitas NZ
Production Company: Scoundrel
Director: Tim Bullock
Executive Producer: Adrian Shapiro
Producer: Claire Kelly
DOP: Shelley Farthing-Dawe
Production Designer: Bruce Everard
Costume Designer: Olivia Dobson
Editor: Adam Wills
VFX: Post Production Blockhead
Casting: Catch
PR Agency: Wright Communications
Audio Post: Franklin Road Studios
