Toyota Europe: When people buy 'what you do', not

'why you do it'

Paulo Carvajal
Source: Account Planning Group (UK), Longlisted, Creative Strategy
Awards 2015
Downloaded from WARC

This case study details how Toyota Europe, the automaker, promoted its hybrid range across 22
markets to meet new EU CO2 emissions criteria by utilising the idea of 'happier drivers'.

Toyota had to make hybrid cars appeal to people other than the 'tree hugging niche' who normally
buy such cars.
It offered the idea of 'transformation' and 'happiness' - that its hybrid cars were good for drivers -
moving away from the 'talking green' approach that many other companies had opted for.
Toyota even tested its notion of 'happier drivers' with an independent experiment which found that
80% of drivers reported being less stressed in a hybrid vehicle.
This led to the 'Fall in Love with Driving Again' campaign, an integrated communication platform
across 22 markets that demonstrated and celebrated how Toyota hybrids transform people's
driving experiences.
The campaigns performed strongly across Europe, with an uplift in search, in hybrid conversation
and in traffic to Toyota's hybrid model website pages.

Paulo Carvajal

Campaign details
Client: Toyota Europe
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Brand: Toyota Europe

Summary
In 2013 car manufacturers in Europe were facing a new challenge: they had to start dramatically lowering their
CO2 emissions in order to meet new EU criteria. For Toyota Europe this meant putting all their chips on their
Hybrid range, and trying to double the amount of Hybrid cars sold, within a few years.

The problem was that for almost 20 years Hybrid vehicles had been positioned as future facing technology for
tree huggers. This was not a sustainable strategy for growth and we had to find a new positioning, a new
narrative, that could appeal to a mass audience.

The expected route with a product like Hybrid would be to find a compelling brand story, because agencies
always tell their clients that "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it". However, guided by hard
consumer facts we decided to navigate in the opposite direction and look for a real product benefit of Hybrid.

After a slow start we stumbled upon a beautiful insight, hidden in some old consumer research: people who drive
a Hybrid transform as drivers. They become more relaxed when driving in traffic, and become happier drivers.

This inspired a new integrated campaign for Toyota Hybrid: Fall in Love with Driving Again. A campaign that
demonstrated, celebrated and even proved how driving a Hybrid makes people happier in traffic. By creating a
benefit driven campaign, rather than a purpose driven campaign, we managed to develop successful work with
real relevance for people.

Taking the low ground

"People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it", proclaimed Simon Sinek in his 2009 TED speech. You
could practically hear the cheering of thousands of planners across the globe on hearing this clarion call. Sinek's
idea reached more than 22 million people on YouTube and the search for a higher purpose became the focus of
every good brand repositioning across the world. None were more fervent believers than us so it was with some
surprise that we realised that Toyota Hybrid, in many eyes the perfect poster child for a higher purpose with its
tree-hugging credentials and planet-saving technology, turned out to be the exact opposite. In the case of
Toyota Hybrid people categorically do not buy 'why' you make hybrid cars - or at least not in sufficient numbers
to hit financial targets. In fact, people are infinitely more attracted to 'what' Toyota Hybrid actually does. It's fair to
say that in the case of Hybrid, planning proved that "people do in fact buy what you do, and not why you do it".

The hybrid challenge

In 2013 it was do or die for car brands in Europe. The EU had increased regulations on CO2 emissions and
consequently all manufacturers need to dramatically lower their emissions before 2020. The penalties for not
meeting these new criteria are without precedent. Each brand has their own unique strategy to achieve the new
criteria and Toyota's chosen strategy was Hybrid. The client made it clear that the future of the entire Toyota
brand was invested in the success of the Hybrid powertrain. But the problem was that Hybrid wasn't growing fast
enough. Despite their position as the world leader in Hybrid technology Toyota had, so far, been unable to
extend the appeal of the car beyond environmentalists and 'economic drivers'. To meet the stretching targets
(double Hybrid sales to 50% of total Toyota sales before 2020) we needed to extend Hybrid's appeal to a wider,
more mainstream audience.
Abandoning the high ground
The first port of call was to see if we could find a more compelling way of expressing the brand's sustainability
credentials. For the past twenty years Toyota had positioned Hybrid as 'the future'. We knew that we couldn't
continue with that route because research showed us that it alienated mainstream audiences ("I don't want
technology that is relevant in the future, I want something that works brilliantly today"). Also, its appeal was
wearing off with early adopters ("After all these years hybrid has become kind of retro-future"). Perhaps we could
find another angle in….

We looked around and realised that all our competition were cluttered in the same 'sustainability' space. The
new Volkswagen campaign 'Think Blue' was a typical example advocating the promise of Technological
Utopianism: cue the images of birds and trees so familiar to the advertising of tech-heavy industries.

And worse: according to the New Car Buyer Surveys (NCBS) 'sustainability' and 'future vision' played little or no
role in people's car brand preference.

Clearly, both the 'future' and the 'environment' were dead end territories. We would have to find something
different to make Hybrid relevant for today's driver. Something disruptive enough to reintroduce the Hybrid and
engage with a wider audience. It was time to abandon the high ground and go in search of some product truths.

Inconvenient truths
Unfortunately, on investigation it appeared that the Toyota Hybrid car had very little going for itself. The cars
have exactly the same design as models that drive conventional engines. Hybrid is more expensive at purchase
(depending on the model the difference can ladder up to £5000). It can be more affordable after purchase, due
to its fuel consumption, but this is a hard claim to make since it is dependent on specific conditions, like the
distance people drive and the speed of the car.

Worse still we met up with Toyota's product team and they had little to offer. In fact they actually made the
situation worse, revealing to us that Hybrid vehicles are perceived to have a poor resale value due to people's
concerns about the battery life.

With nothing helpful from our clients we turned to our local markets. We stalked the big European Hybrid
countries for any research they might have. They didn't have much. Hybrid has always 'sold itself' to its obvious
niche of tech loving tree huggers. Some markets, such as France and Germany, had done research into Hybrid
owners, but that was pretty much it.

And so after weeks of desk research we had no smoking gun. No golden nugget staring us in the face. We
chased the different markets for more but nothing popped up, except for some consumer verbatims from
research. In desperation, we collected these and started to read.

What hybrids actually do

By analysing our consumer verbatims we started to see a pattern emerging. Over and over again we read about
Hybrid drivers claiming that their driving had actually changed since they started to drive a Hybrid. Changed for
the better. They were now more relaxed, more in control and less stressed. The silent powertrain and the
automatic gear box, not only made driving easier but actually more pleasant too. The Hybrid interior felt more
cocooned because the battery underneath the seat lifts it by a few centimetres, people felt protected from the
noisy and filthy air outside.

They felt transformed. They felt happier.

This was our narrative. Toyota Hybrid isn't good for the planet. Toyota Hybrid is good for you. It has an actually
benefit for you, the driver. Forget the birds, the bees and the trees, Toyota Hybrid could transform your driving
and your mood.

Toyota Hybrid makes driving in traffic so smooth, quiet and easy, that it offers a transformative experience. It
transforms driving and turns drivers into happier drivers.

Non-believers
The team was on cloud nine. For a while. Happier Drivers started to travel within the agency and client team
and the more we talked about it the more we liked it. Clients pointed out that this would allow them to move
away from 'talking green' and get into conversations with customers about joy of driving; one of the most
important purchase drivers according to the NCBS.

We were about to brief our new ECD's who had just joined the team but were still based in Buenos Aires. We
organised a conference call and walked them through the brief. And they hated it! Happier Drivers didn't mean
anything, they said. It sounded like advertising bullshit. All new cars make people happy. We presented the
findings from the desk research but they weren't impressed. They wanted more substantiation.

So we decided to spend a week on a Hybrid taxi spree across London interviewing drivers. We collected dozens
of great statements from these professional drivers. We also undertook research in Paris with non-professional
drivers. The results were astounding. People were truly happier in traffic due to Hybrid. We collected amazing
stories from people. One man called his Hybrid his 'third comfort zone'. Someone else claimed that she takes
detours to her destinations just to spend a bit longer in her car. Another lady had started volunteering to drive
her friend's kids to music practice just so she can spend more time in her car. And one of the professional
drivers loved going to the gym after driving around town, because he felt energised.

We were more confident than ever. But Buenos Aires proved a tough audience. These results were enough to
get them started, but still weren't the smoking gun. They wanted something more solid. They wanted real proof.

Scientific proof
We got in touch with Jonathan Freeman, Professor of Psychology at Goldsmith University. We challenged him to
design an experiment to prove that Hybrid drivers are happier drivers and he was willing to collaborate as long
as we allowed him to publish his findings. Even if they turned out to be bad for Hybrids. We decided to take the
risk and moved ahead.

The plan was to go to the most hectic city in Europe and put 30 locals - that normally drive a conventional car -
in a Toyota Hybrid and monitor their reactions, emotions and experiences.
The Hybrid Experiment

When we received the results of the experiment, the results were extraordinary:

80% of drivers reported being less stressed, less frustrated, less angry in the Hybrid vehicle.
Significantly lower levels of stress were recorded by all participants after driving a Toyota Hybrid.
When comparing driving a Hybrid and a non-Hybrid car, participants reported driving a Hybrid was a much
more positive experience.
When explicitly comparing Hybrid with non-Hybrid, driving a Hybrid rated more positively in 'innovative',
'leading edge' and 'enjoyable'

In other words: Toyota Hybrid made them happier drivers. We didn't have a smoking gun. We had a canon!

A new creative platform

Directly off the back of the experiment we launched Fall in Love with Driving Again; an integrated
communication platform that demonstrated and celebrated how Toyota Hybrid transforms people's driving
experiences, and makes them love driving in traffic again.

The campaign structure was simple; in advertising we showed the tangible benefits of Hybrid. Our online
content took the perceived myths that surround Hybrid (e.g. the belief you have to plug in a Hybrid) and
countered them one by one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8SYjEpWS08#t=13
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=fWGxdc6GqpI&list=UUVAFAVDJrSU1qCHP321HVVAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?
list=UUVAFAVDJrSU1qCHP321HVVA&v=DDG5qqVuWUM
Impossible Traffic. TVC for AURIS HYBRID.

Myth busting online content

The clients embraced the 'Love' platform and took it further than we ever imagined. They decided to internally
brand the positive experience created by Hybrid: Feel Good Driving, making it the single most important benefit
of Toyota Hybrids. Toyota has been using Feel Good Driving in test reports, in research briefs and their product
team started to use it when evaluating new products.

Fall in Love with Driving Again was Toyota's first pan-European communications platform with a proper brand
halo. The platform and campaigns were adopted by more than 22 European markets - a new record for Toyota's
central assets.

The campaigns performed strongly across Europe, with an uplift in search, in Hybrid conversation and in traffic
to our Hybrid model web pages.

We met all our 2014 objectives for model page visits in all key markets. These traffic objectives were essential
because Toyota has an econometric model linking number that allows them to use site visits to predict sales
numbers.
The role of planning
Thanks to our strategy, we managed to completely shift the focus of Hybrid; from tree-hugging and future-facing
utopianism to a technology that actually has a real benefit for people's day-to-day driving.

We did this based on real human insights that planning found 'hidden' in existing research. And maybe even
more importantly; planning actually delivered scientific proof for a claim that was perceived as fluffy.

In a segment where most brands take the higher ground - like we had done for many years - we decided to keep
it real, human and relevant. To tell a story that is close to people and connects with them on a topic that's
relevant to them; day to day traffic. In other words, we decided to focus on what Hybrid could deliver, rather than
on why we decided to produce Hybrids. Ironically enough, by choosing a route that was benefit driven, rather
than a chest-beating-brand route, we ended up with a range campaign and communication platform with a great
halo for the brand.

In your face Simon Sinek.

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