Toyota tries interactive, Internet-only ad campaigns (News)

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Honda, Toyota try interactive, Internet-only ad campaigns


By JASON STEIN | Automotive News

DETROIT -- With two out of every three car shoppers gathering information online before making a purchase, automakers have begun Internet-only advertising campaigns.

Last month, American Honda Motor Co. Inc. and Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. started campaigns on Microsoft's MSN network. The Web sites, developed by MSN, are tailored to the automakers' target audiences and rely on MSN's extensive use of interactive features.

MSN says online ads allow more interactivity than traditional media.

"It's a chance to get consumers more involved in the product," says Joanne Bradford, MSN vice president and chief media revenue officer.

MSN guaranteed traffic to the manufacturers' Web sites through links off the MSN network, which attracts more than 350 million unique users worldwide per month. Both campaigns will last 90 days.

Honda's campaign is its first custom-designed promotion on MSN and represents the most expensive online advertising effort for the 2004 Accord.

"Not only does this campaign increase awareness of the 2004 Accord, it gives Honda a chance to grab customer attention in a new way," Bradford says. "It's an amusing, interactive and personal experience that's sure to resonate with the Honda customer."

The Honda campaign, "Critical Decisions," (criticaldecisions.msn.com) uses interactive video vignettes about significant life events. Participants are asked to say how they would navigate seven transitional periods, including leaving home, finding the right job, buying a home, getting married and having children.

MSN says the videos speak to 18 million MSN visitors per month who plan to move and nearly 25 million who will change jobs within a year. Once participants make their choices they can see what paths others have selected. There are links to online resources that relate to different life stages - and links for the 2004 Accord.

"This allows us to strengthen our brand and connect with our target audience: young, dynamic customers," says Ann Palmer, who is responsible for online media at American Honda.

Other brands are jumping on the MSN bandwagon. In September, Ford Motor Co. was the sole advertiser on the MSN home page for a day with a campaign called "Roadblock of the MSN Home Page." The campaign produced 120 million impressions, exceeding the daily MSN home page average for the past 30 days by 25 percent. Traffic on Ford's Web site also rose significantly that day, pulling in an audience estimated at 25 million.

Last month Toyota used MSN to help introduce the 2004 Prius hybrid sedan.

The Prius always has attracted environmentally sensitive buyers. But with MSN, Toyota saw an opportunity to expand its target market to buyers more broadly interested in technology. Toyota's target audience for the Prius is tech enthusiasts, specifically males between 25 and 40.

"MSN is able to deliver people who are interested in technology," says Mark Simmons, national manager for advertising strategy and media at Toyota Motor Sales. "This was a way to push out information and put Prius into an environment that could cast a wide net."

The Prius campaign, called "Start: Technology that works for you," (start.msn.com) was created by ad agency Saatchi and Saatchi in California. Visitors to the Web site are asked if they would buy various electronic gadgets listed under five categories: seeing, playing, connecting, saving and driving.

Each category features four or five consumer products - from radios to cell phones to a talking barbecue thermometer. Web surfers select either "want it," "have it," or "no thanks."

Once participants make their choices they can see what others selected. Also included among the choices in each category are features and attributes of the new Prius - for example, "Bluetooth technology," "excellent fuel economy" and "automatic starter."

"We worked to capture the essence of the new Prius, and it gave us the opportunity to bring in the right audience - the young, tech-minded professional," says Gayle Toberman, director of custom solutions for MSN.

The Prius campaign began in November. MSN says the Prius Web site received more than 1 million impressions in the first week.