Over the past five years, Toyota has done a remarkable job with identifying its most popular consumer demographic, and adapting their ad and PR campaigns to reflect that. Their most recent campaigns have had a Latino-driven motivation, no pun intended. The most notable campaigns launched by Toyota were in 2010 and more recently, fall of 2014. The original Somos Muchos Latinos campaign was implemented following a series of unfortunate car accidents that involved faulty brakes. Following the events dubbed the Toyota Recall Crisis, Toyota created a Latino marketing campaign called Somos Muchos Latinos. The company gave consumers free stickers that had over 99 different adaptations to it, each including a different Hispanic or Latin American culture or country. The more recent campaign, “Mas Que un Auto,” dives into the deeper connection that Latinos have with their cars. In fall of 2014, Toyota launched its “Mas Que un Auto” campaign to celebrate its tenth year as the most popular auto brand among the Hispanic community. The campaign revolved around custom plates to give each car their own unique look. Toyota collaborated with Conill, their partner ad agency based in California, to create a website offering free custom nameplates for Toyota owners’ cars. Their aim was to thank their loyal customers in a truly genuine way.
Most large scale campaigns try to involve and incorporate many different organizations and foundations, but Toyota’s campaign did not involve many. The main advertiser in the process was, obviously, Toyota Motor Corporation. The advertising agency that crafted the strategy and design of the campaign was their partner agency Conill. They were responsible for the simple yet effective concept of the stickers. The campaign was initiated to combat the negative PR effects of a product recall in January of 2010. Toyota’s partner agency Conill facilitated most of the details concerning the execution of the campaign, creating the website where Conill played the biggest part in making “Mas Que un Auto” happen, as they took on the manufacturing responsibilities of the project. While Toyota claims that this PR campaign is solely designed to show their appreciation for their Latino customers, money is almost always the ulterior motive behind any ad campaign.
The feedback that Toyota received from their campaigns was extremely positive. The Toyota Facebook page received thousands of likes, and word circulated quickly throughout different social media platforms because of Toyota’s unique car decals. Regarding the Mas Que un Auto campaign, the results were similar. Delighted fans and customers of Toyota have been doing exactly what the ad campaign was designed to do: circulate photos of happy customers all over social media, showing off their custom nameplates to all of their friends and family. This campaign was so successful that their customers were the ones who evolved it, and the even gave Toyota an idea for the next step of the campaign: publishing real car tales from real customers. The current campaign has surpassed all client expectations, as over 100,000 custom nameplates have been ordered by customers.
Toyota wanted to maintain its status as the number one car purchased by the Hispanic population in the United States. Conill researched the behaviors of the target audience and discovered that in order to reach the population they knew they had to appeal to different sub-groups within the Hispanic demographic. Latinos generally take great pride in their heritage, so Toyota wanted to integrate Latinos’ nationalistic pride with a loyalty to the Toyota brand. Toyota has identified the bond that takes place between Latinos and their cars, and they aimed to foster those relationships through their ad campaign. Latinos have a long history of struggling to afford cars, and Toyota feels honored to be the top choice in automobiles by the Hispanic community.
Despite the negative publicity Toyota received when deaths occurred from faulty equipment, Toyota managed to reinvigorate their brand by strategically appealing to their target audience. The most standout figure is that according to the company’s Hispanic PR tracker, 13 percent increase in favorable opinion of Toyota. This is very impressive because Toyota turned a crisis into a profitable situation, although it is still tragic that eight people lost their lives due to defects in Toyota’s automobiles. Toyota is wisely targeting the Hispanic population in their campaign, as they have been the top automotive brand in the Hispanic market for the past decade. Acknowledging the role that cars play in the lives of consumers, the Mas Que un Auto campaign has been more successful than anyone at Toyota could have hoped for. Toyota has celebrated the support that they have received from the Latino community, and a lasting relationship between the two should continue to bring in profits for Toyota.
