Hot on the heels of Toyota's intensive social media campaign for the new Sienna Minivan, Toyota has unveiled the follow-up to its infamous “Swagger Wagon” ad, which was a viral hit back in 2010, clocking in over 12 million views. The original ad was a tongue-in-cheek, black-and-white music video, featuring a couple of bland, middle-class, white parents rapping about their Sienna, and the redux, for the 2015 model brings in not only the kids, but genuine hip-hop royalty in the shape of Busta' Rhymes. The new ad went live last Friday, and has over 250,000 views already, thanks in no small part to the inclusion of Rhymes, who created the song and lyrics himself in collaboration with the Walker music company and Saatchi LA, the brand's agency of record.
Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi LA have unveiled the follow-up to their infamous “Swagger Wagon” ad, which was a viral hit back in 2010, clocking in over 12 million views
John Payne, creative director at Saatchi LA, says "A copywriter at Saatchi wrote the lyrics with Walker helping out,” but “Busta wrote his own verses,” and they “Didn't make any changes at all to what he did." The video itself recalls the original, but does so in an even more grandiose and surprisingly 'meta' fashion. It also seems to focus more on the specifics of the vehicle than the original ad. To say anymore would be tantamount to a 'spoiler', but you can watch it in full below (if you dare). Payne said Rhymes was an obvious choice for the ad because of his age (he's a middle-aged man himself now), and surprisingly, it only took “A couple of phone calls” to get the hip-hop legend to commit. Payne says the key hook was in telling Rhymes and his agent that they “didn't want to change him," and that they “Were not going to ask him to do anything out of character," as he understand's it's important to the East Coast MC that he “keep his style and let his personality come through.”
The new “Swagger Wagon” ad in all its lurid glory
Kibo Kitahama, Toyota's national marketing and communications manager for van and crossover utilities, says he believes the target audience will connect with the ad because they grew up in the age of MTV and Busta' Rhymes is a character who will “Resonate” with them. The campaign will be based entirely on social media too, with content on YouTube, and links on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook all directing to the video. The 2015 Sienna was unveiled at Artscape2014 in Baltimore, the largest free art festival in the U.S and was also shown at Lollapalooza in Chicago last weekend. Toyota sponsored an area at the festival called “Kids of 'Palooza,” which was engineered to appeal to today's young parents, the generation X and Y youngsters of yesteryear. Kitahama said they “Had activation planned with Lollapalooza and jumped on that opportunity,” because “Lollapalooza has been around for a while, and people who love it are now young parents,” their target market in a nutshell.
The campaign will be based entirely on social media, with content on YouTube, and links on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook all directing to the video
The minivan market has reached something of a plateau in recent years, even with the recent post-recession recovery. Even so, Kitahama said they didn't take this into consideration with the new campaign. He said they didn't consider “Whether the minivan segment is growing or shrinking,” but “Where are the consumers?” He believes where they are is (in his words) “Dropping kids off to play soccer, ice skating, birthday parties, etc.” In other words, they are too busy to watch TV and so they get all of their information through social media. This might sound cynical on the surface, but I know a few young parents and he kind of has a point!
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and musician from the UK who believes he has just witnessed the death of Busta' Rhymes' credibility.
