The voice of Toyota, Egill Ólafsson, is stepping down after 30 years of service. Toyota has been the best selling car brand every year for 30 years running in Iceland and Egill is an iconic part of the brand. And now, voice-over duties are being passed on to a new voice, Ólafur Darri. The ad needs to show Egill handing over the microphone, as well as thanking Egill for his decades long service.

Egill Ólafsson, the voice of Toyota Iceland for the past 30 years, is sitting at a big table waiting for someone or something. We see a silhouette and hear footsteps. Someone is coming. Egill looks up and nods in appreciation to Ólafur Darri, who sits at the other end of the table. Egill hands over his duties to Ólafur. Then stands up and leaves. During the film the original music score follows the scene, with its highs and lows.

The reaction was huge. This ad was not just about Toyota anymore. It was about all of us thanking Egill. Social media exploded just moments after airing. In the following days, the directors, people from Toyota and our agency went on numerous radio interviews talking about the ad. It got its own insert in the evening news on TV stations, newspapers wrote about it and news websites all added to the exposure.

The ad reached 70% of the public on premiere night and was played again and again on YouTube in the media havoc that followed.

The results were a renewed pride of Toyota owners. People took pride of owning a Toyota in their driveway and posted images of their cars on social media. And those pondering buying a new Toyota proclaimed that now the time had come.

Brand loyalty and love was jumpstarted in almost every heart that night.