Dive Brief:

• Toyota Prius is celebrating its 20th birthday with a multichannel campaign that includes a variety of targeting strategies to reach digital consumers based on their location, the weather and ethnicity to highlight the auto's versatility and technology, the company revealed in a press release. 
• The "It's Unbelievable" effort includes a digital partnership with The Weather Channel and AccuWeather that utilizes location-based targeting. Consumers will see targeted video spots based on current weather conditions at their location. There are nine different videos — a 15-second and 6-second version of each — designed to deliver a more relevant experience.
• The campaign also includes social, digital video and in-cinema spots aimed at people from different backgrounds as well as TV and print ads. Toyota's Hispanic marketing partner Conill Advertising created spots to reach this audience. Intertrend created digital videos to appeal to East Asian and Asian Indian markets. The campaign was developed under Total Toyota using a collaborative marketing approach with Saatchi & Saatchi, Conill Advertising, Intertrend and Zenith.

Dive Insight:

Toyota is reaching out to Hispanics, one of the most digitally connected audiences, and East Asians, also among the most digitally enabled consumer groups with a digital-driven campaign. The Asian American population is growing and households tend to be larger and have higher incomes than other ethnic groups in the U.S., making this demographic an appealing one for marketers. 

The new campaign comes as Toyota Prius sales have been dropping after peaking in 2012, according to Car Sales Base, and this latest campaign is designed to help turn things around for the car model. When the Prius was launched in 1997, it was the first mass-produced hybrid car, but now in a crowded marketplace the company faces steeper competition. 

The messaging of the new effort builds on past campaigns that promoted the ecologically friendly car to consumers interested in the environment with a wider approach that shows the versatility of the Prius by highlighting its cutting-edge technology and with humorous spots showing its versatility for a variety of consumers.

Employing location-based targeting to deliver ads based on the weather will help the brand deliver relevant messaging to targeted audiences. While car purchasing decision timelines are much longer than for other product categories, by creating ads that are targeted based on weather, Toyota has the option to highlight different features relevant to the local conditions. 

Location-based marketing spend is on the rise, as brands look to engage consumers throughout the day on digital devices. Brands spent $17.1 billion on location-targeted mobile ads in 2017 and BIA forecasts that this number will jump to $38.7 billion by 2022, as reported on CMSWire.