In 2020, most Hispanics didn’t have the luxury to join the work-from-home movement—65% have jobs in industries like healthcare, transportation, and food services that keep them away from their children.

For the holiday season, when one of our biggest sales events happens, the objective was to connect with Hispanics on an emotional level to increase consideration of the Toyota brand while acknowledging the challenges they have endured over the past 8 months.

The Journey is an inspiring animated story of togetherness stemming from the insight that, through these rough times, small distances with those who matter most can create miles of magical memories. A dad arrives home after a long day at work right when the wind blows his kid’s letter to Santa out the window. He goes on a road trip with his son to chase the lost letter, only to realize that bonding with each other is the greatest gift they could possibly get. The song, composed by musical artist and mother Stacy Walker, speaks about a parent’s promise to always be there for their child. Both the spot and the song debuted simultaneously, thus amplifying the online conversation.

To orchestrate a message of togetherness across multiple channels from broadcast to social media, utilizing the strategy of a simultaneous launch of the spot and the music that serves as its soundtrack, engaging the Hispanic community and amplifying the conversation on different platforms.

The Journey is an inspiring story of togetherness stemming from the insight that, through these rough times, traveling small distances with those who matter most can create miles of magical memories.

Target: Older Millennial/younger Gen-Xer Hispanic parents who were forced to be away from their families due to the nature of their work, whether that was time away or being away for safety reasons.

The campaign kicked off within holiday thematic content—Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade coverage on Telemundo and Univision. We subsequently capitalized on the return of sports and the strong scale they deliver. By strategically selecting contextually relevant, high-profile opportunities (including NFL’s Sunday and Thursday night football, UEFA Champions League on Telemundo, and the Mexican Soccer League Championships on Univision), we were able to get the right message in front of the right audience and work in tandem with our retargeting strategy to drive them down the purchase funnel. We leveraged social and digital channels to capture those who are not heavy TV viewers.

The simultaneous release of the song “Here for You” helped us amplify our message by creating organic buzz around it. Through community management, we drove people who were interested in the song across the different social platforms.

Linear broadcast campaign delivered over 100MM impressions.

The effort successfully engaged viewers with “impressive” and “well above norm” SER (Search Engagement Rates), meaning, those who viewed The Journey subsequently performed an online action captured via search engagement.

The :60 reach buy that kicked off the social media campaign delivered 5MM Hispanic targeted impressions.

Overdelivered against the competitive average across emotional metrics:

Ad appeal: +11 PP

Emotional brand connection: +16 PP

We saw a 12% YoY lift in site traffic to toyota.com/español, the highest December traffic volume in the past two years.

The story was picked up by numerous publications from different industries, including Ad Age (“One of the Top 10 Holiday Ads”) and Men’s Health Network (“Toyota emphasizes the importance of dads’ time with their kids”), among others.

The Toyota brand reported the best December light-vehicle, hybrid, and light-truck tallies in its history.