Brief:

• Toyota, the world’s third-biggest carmaker with unit sales of 5.13 million during the first half of the year, is promoting the 2018 model of Camry sedans with a multimedia campaign that includes dozens of customized videos targeted at Twitter users. Short videos with customized emoji characters are shown to users based upon their recent emoji use on the platform.

• Toyota’s agencies of record, including Saatchi & Saatchi, Conill, Burrell Communications and interTrend Communications, developed the campaign. The digital ads use autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) technology to magnify sight and sound content while highlighting the car’s features with music-like sounds.

• The “Sensations” campaign features interactive ads that let mobile users tap or swipe a phone screen to see different qualities of the car, such as “rebellious,” “thrill” and “serenity.” Artistic snackable videos with visual metaphors of the feelings that the new Camry provokes will be featured on Facebook and Twitter. Snackable videos, stills and GIFs will create a collage on Instagram that displays the vehicle.

Insight:

Toyota’s “Sensations” campaign for the new Camry is an attempt to leverage mobile technology so that users can experience first-hand what it feels like to drive the new car rather than the brand telling them or showing them what it feels like. 

Emojis are being used in the campaign in  an innovative way to customize ads based on the mood of a mobile user. Twitter, which introduced emoji targeting a year ago, lets advertisers place ads in user feeds based on their recent tweets or interactions with tweets that use emoji characters.

The emoji customization means that Toyota is running 83 unique videos among 13 core storylines to match a person’s online mood. Because the campaign is meant to raise awareness, Toyota doesn’t specifically target people who are now in the market to buy cars, according to Advertising Age.

Toyota’s campaign also shows how emojis are being embraced by marketers to reach people, especially millennials and younger, in ways that make sense to them. Facebook in July said 60 million emojis are sent on Facebook everyday, while 5 billion are sent every day through Facebook Messenger.

ASMR is being embraced by brands like Ikea and Toyota because it has a strong following on YouTube, where there are more than five million related videos, and can be a way to make a more personal connection in the digital realm. 

Interactive ads are a growing trend and have been shown to outperform static ads on key measurements. 

The integrated campaign also includes eight broadcast spots as well as print and out-of-home ads.