Toyota goes full-on fairy tale mode to market its C-HR model

Dive Brief:

Toyota and its agency partners including Saatchi & Saatchi, Conill, Burrell and interTrend are tapping traditional fairy tale messaging in its latest TV spots promoting the C-HR vehicle, per MediaPost. The campaign — titled "A New Story Begins" — draws from well-known fairy tales such as Cinderella, the Gingerbread Man, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood and Truel (a three-way duel).
The campaign includes re-worked versions of the ads by Bad Lip Reader for YouTube and Toyota’s social media channels with 20 unique videos, one long-form music video, print ads and out-of-home cinema spots.
The storytelling campaign builds on a launch event earlier this year and taps the classic tales “ … in a fresh and mischievous way,” Ed Laukes, group vice president, marketing, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., told MediaPost.

Dive Insight:

Storytelling has become a staple for content marketing as consumers demand entertainment and authentic brand messages from marketers. In its latest campaign, Toyota taps into the potential of the tactic by borrowing from the classics rather than inventing a fresh narrative, but tweaks the well-known stories in cheeky ways.

Toyota isn't the only brand to recognize the power of a well-told story. Other major brands like Dove and Marriott also have used storytelling to take advantage of consumer interest in interacting with brands on multiple screens and with longer form content than 15- or 30-second TV spots. Marriott's internal content studio went as far as creating its “Two Bellmen” series of short films that have run lengths as long as 40 minutes. Unilever's Dove brand partnered with TV producer, screenwriter and author Shonda Rhimes to launch a collaborative content studio to share women's personal stories.

Toyota is taking a different approach with its fairy tale story lines, but it’s also giving the effort an extended digital push with the YouTube videos. As content marketing continues to evolve, storytelling will be especially important as content is consumed across multiple technologies and platforms.