Our approach was to tell an inspiring and powerful story of what's truly possible when you make a conscious decision daily to have a positive mental attitude.

We adapted an old Cherokee legend about the universal struggle in our hearts and minds between two wolves. The good wolf is positive, affirming thoughts and actions; the bad wolf is negative beliefs and intentions. The question is, which one wins?

To bring this story to life, we worked with relatively unknown, multi-sport para athlete Oksana Masters. Deformed at birth by the radiation fallout from Chernobyl, Oksana was orphaned, lost both her legs, and was told she would never be an athlete. Despite this, she refused to give up, eventually winning multiple medals in the Paralympic Games.

In an unconventional move, we cast an Instagram famous dog with 1.7 million followers to play the role of both wolves.

We pitched detailed storyboards and a script to demonstrate how we planned to seamlessly integrate the athlete, dog, vehicle and Olympic branding in the piece while supporting the narrative arc.

Due to athlete availability, we were given six hours to capture thirty setups at multiple locations in Bozeman, Montana. With limited time, budget and blizzard conditions, our nimble crew of five (director, DP, drone operator, sound and producer) set out to start our impossible.

To demonstrate the impressive handling of the Toyota Highlander, we match cut to the athlete’s maneuvering on a hilly course.

We followed an aggressive three day edit timeline in order to allow time for approvals from seven entities.

We coordinated with the agency, partners and paid media team to launch the video on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat in the days leading up to the Opening Ceremony, when attention and curiosity was at its height.

To increase reach and amplify awareness, we leveraged over 20 Team Toyota athletes, influencers, partners (National Governing Bodies) and local Toyota dealerships to share the video across their social channels. The video was supported by a modest spend on Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat and we generated impressive organic reach via Loki the Wolfdog’s Instagram channel.

In the first 48 hours, the video amassed over 9 million views across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On Loki’s channel, 118,000 people viewed the video and 23,000 followers engaged with the organic post. The comments were universally positive, with hundreds of fans praising Toyota’s support of the Paralympics and the video’s inspiring message.

In total, our 50+ social videos for Toyota’s domestic Olympics campaign generated over 36.5 million views across key social platforms and generated universally positive brand sentiment and awareness.