Dive Brief:
- Toyota partnered with Oath last summer to live stream four music festivals and develop special video, native and display ads in an effort to engage millennial music fans, according to a case study shared with Marketing Dive.
- The live streams of the festivals Firefly, Panorama, Life Is Beautiful and Voodoo generated more than 83 million collective views — a 107% increase from the previous year — and were available on both mobile and desktop devices. Viewers tuned in for an average of 15 minutes, and the campaign sparked a 23% lift in consideration to buy a Toyota car among millennials in the market for a new vehicle.
- For this year's partnership, Toyota and Oath are adding more customization to the experience. Fans will be able to switch between stages at the music festivals to see simultaneous performances, per one example shared in the release.
Dive Insight:
Toyota's work with Oath demonstrates how brands are leveraging live video to raise brand awareness and even drive sales, especially around events that draw more niche or targeted audiences. Automakers have struggled to reach millennials, who are buying fewer cars than older generations, but Toyota's efforts around Firefly, Panorama, Life Is Beautiful and Voodoo appeared to strike a chord with the age group. Millennials frequently attend music festivals and also likely appreciate the opportunity to live stream the ones they can't go to in-person, especially via mobile devices, which Toyota and Oath put a heavy emphasis on.
Live streaming on both mobile and desktop continues to be an appealing option for marketers, with 95% of surveyed industry professionals planning to increase investments in the format, according to a study by Brandlive and IBM Cloud Video. Part of the interest might stem from live video's generally high levels of engagement, as reinforced by Toyota's strong lift in purchase consideration. Recent research by the Interactive Advertising Bureau found that, among viewers who have live streamed video, 64% engaged with ads throughout the content. Those viewers also better remembered the brands advertised, clicked on ads and visited brands' websites after seeing ads in live-streamed video.
The partnership with Oath demonstrates how Toyota is looking to innovate with its marketing, both on newer channels like mobile and also through more traditional ones. For example, the automaker ran an interactive foldout print ad in the March issue of InStyle magazine to promote its 2018 Camry. The ad included elements of sight, sound, smell and touch, and simulated measuring the reader's heart rate.
