The objective of the Toyota Hilux Man-Up campaign was to break through the noise and steal some thunder from the imminent launch of the VW Amarok. We needed to maintain the Hilux’s image of toughness and make sure that the toughness of the Hilux rubs off on the driver. This was achieved with a tongue-in-cheek, through-the-line drive to a Man-Up website where South Africans completed and competed in various challenges, on and offline, for Man Points. The prize for the person with the most Man Points at the end of the competition was a kitted out Toyota Hilux.

The Toyota Man-Up campaign was launched simultaneously across a number of channels, with all the communication driving the consumer to the Man-Up website. The website went live at the beginning of November, with outdoor and radio launching on the same day. TV followed a few days later on the 6th of November. Over the following months, TV, radio and web content was continuously refreshed and further media touch points were added; including web banners, print and press ads, magazine card drops, emailers, dealership posters and live activations.

The Hilux Man-Up campaign’s success was unprecedented in relation to the original campaign objectives. We wanted to achieve 8,000 registrations on the Man-Up website and ended up with 24,808 registrations at the end of the campaign, as well as 19,787 unique uploads from users to the website. There were also 1,073 Hilux test-drives taken- higher than any other Toyota competition has generated to date. On top of greatly expanding Toyota’s consumer database, the Man Up campaign successfully reminded South Africa that the Toyota Hilux was still THE vehicle for the real man.