Japanese automobile maker Toyota has become a true global auto powerhouse. Founded in 1937, Toyota originally sold vehicles under the founder’s name, “Toyoda,” which literally translates into “fertile rice paddies.” The company name was later changed to Toyota, due to the fact that Toyota took a lucky number of 8 brush strokes to write, as opposed to the 10 brush strokes needed for “Toyoda.”
Toyota first entered the American market in 1957… and was received poorly (After all, it was the era of big cars, big hair and big music). Things have come a long way; Toyota has since gone on to win hundreds of awards and accolades. Toyota was ranked as the top selling global automaker with over 9.75 million vehicles sold. So how does the premier automobile maker, handle itself on the twisting track of social media marketing? Let’s find out in this week’s breakdown.
Toyota’s deals are thought to be well north of $10 million for packages of channels, while Unilever is in the $5 million range for "Young Hollywood," one of the channel partners with a long history of producing popular celebrity programming on YouTube. YouTube declined to comment on deal terms or pricing.
Content Quality
On YouTube, Toyota features car models, commercials, how-to segments and community stories. In October 2014, Toyota USA’s YouTube channel had 62,641 subscribers and had been seen by over 81 million people. Clips like the one below featuring B.B. King engage at an emotional level.
Using Social media platforms, Toyota USA’s Facebook page is chock-full of Toyota goodness. Sharing images and videos help Toyota get their fans to empathize and connect with aspects of the brand as a whole, rather than just pimping out its cars. Open-ended questions are regularly asked, many accompanied by nostalgic photos asking fans to reminisce about their Toyota memories. Toyota’s Twitter account is very image heavy as well, with daily posts promoting its cars and retweets from its various partners.
Toyota’s social media network Pinterest’s account has a real feel good vibe. One of the most followed boards is the Dream Car Art contest. This board features fantastical vehicles designed by Toyota’s youngest fans. On YouTube, Toyota does smashingly well in terms of having great content. The YouTube account is neatly divided into sections by various car models, commercials, how-to’s and community stories.
When not promoting its line of cars and trucks, Toyota regularly asks its legions of fans to help them fulfill its charitable initiatives. Toyota recently launched a social charitable initiative named, “100 Cars for Good.” Through this initiative, Toyota gave away 100 cars over a period of 100 days to 100 nonprofit organizations. In support of this initiative, Toyota created a custom Facebook page as a part of their social media strategy that allowed its Facebook fans to vote on which charities and organizations they felt deserved the cars.
Audience Engagement
Toyota follows the social media trends in many ways. Toyota’s official Facebook page has over 1.5 million likes and over 129 thousand people talking about it. The most engaging piece of content is a link advertising the new RAV4 Genie commercial (featuring a talking baby). It has been liked over seven thousand times, shared more than 250 times and commented on by over two hundred individuals. Another one ofToyota’s social media networks is their official Twitter account which has published over 4.8 thousand Tweets and has garnered over 145 thousand followers.
Toyota USA’s YouTube channel has over 32 thousand subscribers. Its plethora of videos has earned Toyota more than 49 million views. The video with the most views is the RAV4 Super Bowl commercial “Wish Granted.” It has been watched over 16 million times since being published. Toyota’s Pinterest account features 11 boards, 199 pins and 1,570 followers. The board with the most followers is “Toyota Infographics.” The board features 22 pins of pure, uncut infographic amazement.
Thrill Factor
Since 1983, Toyota has been putting a trans-pacific spin on a classic American sport. Toyota has become an integral part of the racing world, winning numerous title and races across everything from NASCAR to NHRA. A unique facet of Toyota Racing is the Toyota Pro/Celebrity series. Here celebrities like Wanda Sykes and Jeremy Sisto are trained to race against each other, raising money in support of the charity, “Racing for Kids.” Pictures, videos, stats and finishings from all of Toyota Racing’s focuses are then pushed through Toyota’s social media outlets, providing fans with exciting and thrilling content no matter what circuit gets their engines running.
When they aren’t curating amazing social content through its racing teams, Toyota can be found building celebrity buzz through its truly lavish launch parties. Recently the 2014 Corolla entered the market with a bang on the night of June. Toyota teased the event and shot out regular updates and pictures from the event through its social media platforms all night long.
The post Toyota YouTube Marketing Strategy appeared first on ReelnReel.