The new Toyota Prius is about to land in a neighborhood near you!. Starting this week, Gas Station TV and Toyota Team up to Launch ‘Prius Neighborhood,’ the first-ever community-generated TV Program. The community relations program broadcasts consumer-generated local cause-related events at-the-pump screens while informing viewers about the new 2010 third-generation Prius. "Prius Neighborhood" submissions are available online.
The Prius Neighborhood is located at Gas Station TV’s Events and the submission process only takes a few minutes. Once the local event and charity information is submitted to the Web site, it is reviewed and built into the local events listing rotation at a Gas Station near you, searchable by zip code on the web site.
Prius Neighborhood on Gas Station TV is part of Toyota’s integrated marketing campaign for the third-generation Prius, which began last month. Developed by Saatchi & Saatchi LA, it will reach consumers where in their physical and virtual worlds. by including deep social networking and digital programs, coupled with traditional media.
The events will be posted on Prius Neighborhood’s website, on Twitter @GSTVevents and Facebook pages and considered for broadcast on the Prius Neighborhood show on Gas Station TV. Local residents can then search, view and attend these events in their neighborhoods.
On Facebook, users can become fans of Prius Neighborhood, post new events, view posted events, interact with others and link to the event submission page through a custom-developed Prius Neighborhood application which can be added as a tab on users’ profiles.
"Our Prius customers are very involved in their communities," said Kim McCullough, corporate manager of marketing communications for Toyota. "For the launch of the third-generation Prius, we wanted to give them an innovative tool to help promote the philanthropic and community events they’re passionate about."
The Prius Neighborhood 30-second TV segments and consumer-generated local event segments will be watched by more than one million unique drivers a day.
"This is one of the first demonstrations of the next generation of social media marketing campaigns – a TV/social media hybrid," said David Leider, CEO of Gas Station TV parent company Destination Media. "Today, social media is limited to reaching you via your PC or your Smartphone – essentially, ‘computer to computer.’ GSTV’s proprietary Neighborhood platform is a game changer because it shifts and expands the flow of dialogue, enabling people to now inform TV content – ‘computer to TV.’"
The car launch is being targeted to the the masses, not just the eco-conscious. That’s why the campaign is less about environmentalism than fostering connections among consumers. However according to Doug Frisbie, national media manager for Toyota. the typical Prius buyer tends to be a local activist. All the research that we’ve done about the consumer shows that they’re well-connected in their community.” he noted.
Such consumers will be encouraged to submit via Twitter and Facebook, the cause-related events they want publicized on Gas Station TV, which provides programming in more than 1,000 gas stations. For Toyota, the network has the added bonus of reaching consumers while they are filling up their tanks at the pump.
Great synergies are at work here, and I’m sure that this campaign will be replicated by other car companies who continue to struggle in this down economy.
