Instead of using the traditional mass media to appeal to a younger demographic, Toyota-Ten Dealer released a free movie based on a popular animation series at movie theatres. No traditional advertising media was implemented. Such an advertising campaign had never been attempted in Japanese history. The campaign also included the official website, mail magazine, mobile website, twitter updates, web games and iPhone/smartphone apps. The full-length movie is on YouTube and USTREAM, while Tsutaya, the largest DVD rental chain, provided free rentals.As a result of these efforts, the campaign received 240,000 hits on Toyota-Ten’s website, 260,000 web video views, and 3.7 million total tweets without using any traditional television or print ads. With a little unconventional thinking, this advertising campaign achieved not only increased popularity of Toyota, but we provided a quality feature movie free of charge to many people in Japan.

First we launched a teaser site, and the main character’s tweet started the first viral effort. The official movie’s website, an In-Cinema Ad and a mail magazine were launched. On the same day, we parodied a NASA news conference announcing a discovery. Everything was drawn and uploaded onto YouTube in two hours. During the holidays, spin-off videos were released to keep the buzz going. The Premiere was held in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka to create fresh buzz for the grand launch of the movie. An iPhone App was released to add more viral strength. Opening of the first free 45-minute movie ever released in Japan. When the film left theatres, the entire movie went up on YouTube, USREAM, 1000 Toyota-Ten dealers played the movie in showrooms, along with several movie spin off videos. To appeal to non-digital consumers, free DVD rentals were offered at Tsutaya, the biggest DVD rental chain.

From the consumer’s point of view it was a free, high quality, entertaining movie made by the famous director, FROGMAN, who has a huge following among young audiences. The campaign was created to build a strong following through Twitter, Mail Magazines, seasonal videos, and an App, as well as a parody of the NASA press conference that launched within 2 hours of the actual event.

The in-theatre audience research shows 77% of audience members passed information about the movie onto friends and families.

For the client, it was successful in getting the attention of young drivers by using the popular anime character with the innovative viral campaign. Getting 3.7 million tweets by not using any traditional mass media speaks of the success of the campaign. Dealerships were flooded with calls from interested buyers attracted by the campaign. That motivated the whole sales team more than other sales campaign.