Without the ability to sell cars as freely as we had in the past, Toyota sought to increase brand metrics in non-conventional ways.

The brief came off the back of the launch of the Corolla Cross - a new model full of technology available in a Toyota, but that would inevitably sell out in a month. As such we looked for activations and extensions that instead of merely selling metal, were designed to raise the connection and meaningfulness of the Toyota brand. Primarily this was to be achieved through increasing the crucial ‘trust’ metric, which had been flagging due to stock issues and frustration around wait times.

Trust was a composite metric defined by Kantar, made up of innovation, authenticity and ethics/community pillars. As such we sought to shift metrics across the trust spectrum such as ‘does things for the community’, and ‘helping/changing the world for the better’.

Find Your Drive is a program that offers a new model over traditional driving schools, developed by experts and now tested on four adults, filmed over a three-month period. The approach consisted of three parts: Initial counselling sessions helped overcome mental barriers, VR road driving simulations built up the confidence to get behind the wheel and specialised driving instructors who provided extra support while on the road.

A 3-part content series was released allowing the Australian public to follow each stage of their journey, culminating in their driving tests, which they all passed. Launched with an integrated campaign consisting of OOH, a national radio partnership, TV trailers on streaming services, and digital display, we drove the public to an online hub with in-depth resources and contacts for professionals so they could customise their program, to help them Find Their Drive.

We wanted to increase the crucial brand health metric of trust with the general population of Australia, by activating in a purpose-driven way that could be seen and appreciated by all.

When the Corolla Cross was launched, the strategy was ‘help show Australians that the Cross helps you move through life smoothly’, an articulation of the confidence that the class-leading technology could provide drivers. A single line jumped out in the creative brief “this car is so smart, even my partner could feel confident to drive it”. The partner in question was a 30-year-old who, due to early trauma behind-the-wheel, couldn’t find the courage to get her licence.

The strategy was therefore to include a very non-conventional demographic in our thinking - non-drivers. If we were truly going to live the purpose of “Mobility for All”, then surely that included enabling confidence in those that couldn’t drive, but wanted to.

Once we developed the new model in collaboration with psychologists, a Virtual Reality Simulation expert and driving specialised driving instructors we then put it to the test by putting out a call for adult drivers suffering from driving anxiety.

We then selected 4 candidates each with their own unique challenge that was holding them back. Zac, 30, partially deaf in both ears and vision impaired; Suzzanna, 48, a high achiever who has failed her learner’s test six times; Harley, 32, who suffers from ADHD and Maddy, 35, a diabetic single mother.

Over 3 months they went through each stage, told through a 3-part film series culminating in their driving tests, which they all passed. Launched with an integrated campaign consisting of OOH, a national radio partnership, TV trailers on streaming services, and digital display, we drove the public to an online hub with in-depth resources and contacts for professionals.

Find Your Drive changed the lives of the four adult drivers who took part in the pilot program, helping them all obtain their drivers licence and achieve the freedom of mobility but their success provides inspiration for 1.5million other non-drivers.

The media launch generated a 3369% increase in traffic to the “Mobility For All” section of the Toyota website with 450+ new non-drivers signing up to the follow-up program.

With this success, we’re now exploring extending the pilot program to accredited driving schools to adopt the approach and have Find Your Drive as an official offering and accreditation for all.

21.5M media reach, reaching 77% of all Australians.

The campaign also contributed to Toyota becoming:

The #8 most trusted brand in Australia (up 2%)

The #8 brand that ‘helps its local communities’ - up from #11

The #5 brand ‘changing the world for the better’ - up from #7