With a production budget of only $140K, Toyota wanted to prove the 4Runner could take on any off-road trail. There was one problem: No viable Internet connection.

A high-powered satellite was raised on a scissor lift at the edge of the trail. A 4Runner was rigged and wired with remote audio, video, and Internet display feeds. Two HD cameras were rigged on the driver’s side cam and underbody. A third follow camera was set up to track 4Runner on the ground. Google Glass was worn by a passenger and wireless GoPros were rigged along the trail and around the vehicle to capture other angles.

Budget and fire safety rules limited us only a day of prep time on location. We worked with Google at their Los Angeles hub to temporarily boost the signal to our remote connected feed, but the signal still experienced massive data load problems. When one camera would go out, we’d get it up but lose sound. We were trouble-shooting literally down to the moment the Hangout began. When the feed went live, everything clicked into place for 45 minutes of extreme off-roading.

In a mission control reminiscent of NASA, technicians juggled the remote satellite feed, managed three remote connections from hangout guests across the US, cued customizable feature overlays, and moderated thousands of Hangout participants as a director cut between the various camera angles in real-time. In 45 minutes, the feed never dropped and we never lost a guest.

The Hangout was unscripted, but a rough outline and set of brand guidelines helped steer guests, experts, and hosts to execute a live event without lulls, and invent informative, exciting, real-time answers.

Toyota continues to create custom 4Runner content using footage collected from the innovative shoot, views keep climbing, and there is even interest in further Hangouts with other models.

The world’s first off-road Google+ Hangout set the bar high for future brand integrations on the platform. Touted by Google on its own channels and featured on the Hangouts page, the activation continues to transform 4Runner online opinion. Here are the current stats:

Toyota received 8.7 million unpaid impressions of the live Hangout on Google+ through shares of bloggers, fans, the auto community and Google itself.

The Hangout was embedded on lifestyle sites and blogs like Autoguide, Field & Stream Magazine and the most popular 4Runner forums.

Off-road and 4Runner fans started using #KeepItWild organically in posts and shares.

Social sentiment of 4Runner changed from wary skepticism to positive referral.

Toyota increased 4Runner production by 34% to keep up.