http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ7E7uEZN00
A Shoreditch underpass was recently host to the setting of a new Toyota advert titled “Get Your Energy Back”. The ad was for the new Toyota Auris Hybrid car and the idea was to dramatise the technology within the vehicle to a large crowd of passers by. This was achieved by cleverly projecting animation on to the car through 7 projectors at different angles. This resulted in the car being brought to life with neon blue lights and electrifying the dark surroundings. Boasting all the characteristics of a good TV ad this all sounds quite cool right? But ‘whats so new?’ I hear you all ask. Well the clever part of the campaign comes in the form of the crowds they pulled in from the display. Some of the crowd were handpicked influential bloggers and tweeters with a large web presence. Others were just normal folk who were encouraged to film the event on their mobile devices and upload their clips to social media sites. This form of participation from the public with the advertising campaign can create a huge buzz online. And with the scale of audience you can reach through social media sites its no wonder the ad agencies is targeting ‘normal’ people to get involved with their campaigns If the public react in the way they are intended to and upload content to sites such as YouTube and Twitter they are then interacting with the brand. This online content is then viewed by an audience who will be more open and less stand offish towards the brand because it reached them through a friend or relative online, not through the company. We should see a lot of this guerilla-esque advertising and social media mix soon – judging by the success. Very cunning!