Sports papers are primarily read by businessmen on their way to work and it is not unusual for the subjects of major news in such papers to come up during business meetings. Therefore, to maximize the viral effect, the ads were placed on the mornings of days particular sports were scheduled. The ads were also executed to give readers a sense of involvement in the Olympic athletes’ high level of sports performances.Swimming (breast stroke), baseball, women’s volleyball and women’s table tennis were selected. We focused on creating visuals that allowed the readers to see as much from the actual athlete’s perspective as possible, going beyond the framework of the two-dimensional newspaper media. In selecting the sports, we also took into consideration the impact readers would get when opening the newspaper, whether or not the readers would be excited, and whether they would want to simulate the action themselves.

The newspaper ad campaign contributed to enhancing both TV ratings and Toyota’s corporate image. The audience rating of the baseball game was 27%. Competitive swimming also recorded 21.1%. The percentage of those who felt that “Toyota is a highly energetic company” rose from 78% to 82%.The fresh creative approach of using newspaper ads “to let the readers experience high level of athletic skills through their everyday activities” enabled Toyota to win high levels of “favourability” and empathy.