by Jonathan Marshall
I have been meaning to talk about this for a while now, but was finally reminded by Michael Sheena of Examiner.com when I read his blog this morning. It was about Toyota’s “Harmony Between Man, Nature and Machine” marketing campaign for its third generation Prius is a homerun. The spot shows a white Prius driving through a landscape of people dressed as plants, water, and clouds. According to Nielsen, IAG ranked the commercial number one as the “most-liked” new TV advertisement. Only new ad executions, aired during the weeks of May 4 to 31, 2009, were considered. The Prius commercial was about 70 percent better-liked than the average new commercial.
Toyota has really been the most aggressive of all car companies to push the concept of “Technology/Innovation.” With accessories like “Voice-activated touch screen DVD/Navigation System” and “Bluetooth music/iPod ready,” buying a car suddenly has become much more complicated. Another upgrade to the new Prius is available solar power, which should help to cool the interior of the car. Toyota has been receiving a lot of positive feedback from their new campaign, and this idea of “Harmony” is very effective. According to Michael, this is where man’s wants meets nature’s needs, and finally they agree. Using the wind, sun and advanced hybrid technology, the Prius attempts to balance our demand for mobility with the natural order of things. It’s not like Toyota invented the hybrid technology, but they have pushed so hard and are so convincing with this new campaign, that many people will end up thinking they did. Quality design, a clever concept and taking advantage of technological advancement. This is great advertising. Kudos Toyota.