GREEN DRIVING

The Cause

Believing in a future where cars can be better for you AND better for the planet

The green driving zeitgeist around 2010 was pretty grim. Prius was gaining some traction but also viewed as “ugly” and “smug” while also trying to stay ahead of emerging lower-quality hybrid car competition. Meanwhile electric cars couldn’t seem to get a foothold in the US automotive industry whatsoever.

The best-selling vehicle that year was the Ford F-150 truck. Cash for Clunkers had a modest short-term impact but played pretty negatively with the Tea Party types gaining momentum. Record-high gas prices hitting a $4/gallon average for the first time ever, populist cries of drill baby drill, and politician’s inability to align on funding for public transportation or cleaning up the electric grid.

When it came to green driving, the only thing people needed more than a little positivity was the assurance that their hybrid or EV could be better for the planet and their budget without having to sacrifice any of the features they really wanted in a car. We needed to help people feel good about taking a chance on cleaner ways to drive.

For the 3rd Generation Toyota Prius launch, that meant energetically introducing the idea of Harmony Between Man, Nature, and Machine.

For the Nissan Leaf launch, that meant promising everything you love about the Nissan lineup would be woven into the DNA of the world’s first mass-market electric vehicle.

You + The Planet

The Toyota Prius Content

We had so much fun bringing the concept of “harmony” to life across the country and using innovative new (at the time!) mediums.

Contributions included:

  • Installation art – Harmony, coming to a city near you. To promote the Prius’ new solar roof technology, we partnered with local sculptors Poetic Kinetics to create a traveling grove of 18-foot flowers that actually used solar panels to help power charging stations + free wifi where visitors were encouraged to share their experience on social media. Within weeks we had generated over 2 million google hits, $18million in PR, countless opportunities for people to relax and recharge together, and (my personal favorite) even a spontaneous pop-up concert.
  • Blooming billboards – Colorful flower gardens in the iconic Prius shape adorned major highways.
  • Co-branded content – We partnered with Discovery’s HowStuffWorks.com, a leader in search index relevance, in an effort to organically incorporate Prius into topics our target is googling. We developed an unbranded hub page called Fw:Thinking featuring creative polls, top 5 lists, and 100+ articles ranging from the science of happiness to surprising recyclables. In addition, we produced two explainer videos which aired on the Discovery Channel, discussing the science behind solar power and MPG — two of Prius’ key features.
  • Toyota’s first-ever Facebook page – While brands were still unsure how to leverage social media, we launched a few social media experiences that were definitely ahead of their time:
    • Random Acts of Prius – We created a social media game that rewarded people for helping to make the world just a little bit brighter, one Random Act at a time.
    • Ask An Expert – Rather than a run-of-the-mill discussion board, we engaged real Prius bloggers who already had loyal followings and elevated them to expert status on our page. We developed a tool where users could get credible 3rd party answers from these experts to anything they ever wanted to know about Prius, share, and discuss.
  • Interactive banner ads – Draw something, and watch it come to life to help illustrate a cool feature about the Prius.

Art Installations & Content

Co-Branded Content with HowStuffWorks & GOOD Magazine

Sample Social & Digital Content

The Nissan Leaf Content

Not very many people had heard about Nissan’s upcoming electric car when we were tasked to start getting the word out.

Contributions included:

  • The big reveal – To tease the upcoming 360° launch of the world’s first mass-market electric vehicle, we created several anthemic TV commercials that premiered during the Olympics opening ceremonies and throughout the winter games.
  • Teaser digital – The car wasn’t ready for market yet, but we were tasked to generate a groundswell of pre-launch buzz including colorful social media posts and banner ads that scraped the internet for trending EV questions we then answered within the banners themselves. It was fun to help people – many for the first time ever – wrap their heads around the fact that YES this car actually 100% electric which meant zero gas, zero tailpipe, zero oil changes, zero engine noise, etc.

Credit

Content creation: Lindsey Montague, Chelsea Dubois, Elizabeth Alexander, Shannon Wilch, Chris Peel, Kelly Kliebe, Michael Gurman, Poetic Kinetics, Lauren Smith, Shawna Bigby, Michael Richardson, Ken Bones, James Bryce/Top Gear

Leadership: Andrew Christou, Scott Huebscher, Margaret Keene, Chris Adams

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