ANNOUNCEMENT:

The Bees Awards announce today 3 New Judges on their 2011 jury. The Bees Teaminvite you to engage with them and Submit Your Work for the 2011 edition.

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THIS WEEK 5 MIN CASE STUDY:

Entry: Toyota SponsafierClient: ToyotaAgency: Saatchi and Saatchi LA

Challenge in the Market:NASCAR fans have long pledged their allegiance to the American-made cars thatdominate the tracks. In order to grow the brand, Toyota needed to start appealing to thisaudience. But simply winning races isn't enough. Toyota had to find a way to get theseimport-resistant fans to actually interact with their vehicles.

Strategy:Toyota's long-time fan tracking study showed that NASCAR fans are heavily involvedwith social media. Nothing proved this better than witnessing the fan support whenKenny Wallace lost his ride for the Montreal race. Word got out online that if each fandonated $20, they could get Kenny back in the race. 5,000 people became his"sponsors". That told Toyota they could interact with the fans online but the pay-off hadto be something juicy. Why be just 1/5,000th of a fan; why not have your very own car.

Description:Toyota Sponsafier became a NASCAR-themed site at toyotaracing.com that allowedparticipants to design their own race Camry. Graphic elements were made available orparticipants could upload their own to design in 3D. But the most exciting part was thecontest extension. The winning design would become the Grand Marshall car at theCharlotte race. Fans would post their entries on the site but what really took off wastheir involvement of sharing their designs on Facebook and Twitter in order to drum upvotes for their Camry from among their friends.

Results:

Over 6,000,000 page views were recorded70,000 fans submitted designsThe level of engagement and involvement were completely unexpected andunanticipated. 110,000 of a formerly uninvolved fan base signed-up to becomeregistered users of toyotaracing.comThese same formerly reticent fans became collaborators and evangelists for theToyota siteThere were over 250,000 incidences of sharing on Facebook, with designersasking their friends to check-out the site, try it out for themselves and, of course,vote for their specially-designed CamryOver 1.3 million fans voted

Additional Comments:To date, there are now 101,000 designs in the gallery, 150,000 registered users,857,000 total shares and an unbelievable 9.9MM+ views. So popular was this effort thata second contest was introduced to coincide with NASCAR's "Chase for the Cup" thatwill culminate this season with the last race in Homestead.

CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

Weekly Experts:

Ryan Lee Social Media Strategist Mekanism (USA)Jonas Nielsen Managing Partner Mindjumpers (Denmark)

Meet with our Expert Analysts.

Their Comments:

National pride in consumption is a reality for international marketers. Here, a Japanesecar manufacturer has to break into a protectionist market and chooses to address theNASCAR audience.

"The campaign performed extremely well in registering users to toyotaracing.com."Says Ryan. "Having an interactive app for designing custom cars is a good way tokeep users engaged on site. The use of "sharing" on Facebook and Twitter to drivevoting is smart. Most of all, winning design will appear as Grand Marshall car designon national TV is an incentive that is adapted and worked well for the targetaudience."

A result of 110,000 new signups for a niche market is impressive. But theSaatchi&Saatchi LA campaign went even further. "Toyota asked real people and gotinvolved in real life: that's where the real stories are. This is how social media can startgreat possibilities." Says Jonas. Something new happened in the season 2; somethingspecial. "Toyota's promotion revealed recently the new winning entry: Camry designfrom Jeff Hallowell and his son Ethan. In 2002, Jeff was diagnosed with ALS (LouGehrig's disease). He is, today, in a wheel chair communicating with the world throughan eye tracking technology system. Visit http://www.toyotaracing.com/ and see anunbelievable video story of an American family (video: Sponsafy Your Ride 2 ContestWinner)." Once again, Toyota proves to leverage the strengths of social mediamarketing and creates another opportunity to connect with hard fans of NASCAR.

Toyota's Sponsafier work shows great ability to engage and involve people. One thingthat could be improved though, according to our expert analysts, is how to convert intoBrand Ambassadors the newly involved NASCAR fans?

Jonas suggests: "With the engagement they received from the young generation, theyshould now leverage a social game on Facebook platform. Social games aresomething that we will see a lot in the future, especially from bold and edgy brands."

A mobile app would also be suited for the younger audience. Once you have involvedconsumers, you must provide them with tools to promote your brand. Social games aregreat to engage and compete with friends.

Toyota's Sponsafy Your Ride contest shows impressive results. The story of the recentwinners goes even further than engagement with an audience of consumers: It ismoving and inspiring. Jonas comments: "Will this NASCAR generation grow upthinking about Toyota as a Japanese brand? Not likely!" Or at least, results prove that itwill not limit much the customers' behavior.

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