In order launch a future beyond cars, the world’s largest auto brand created a campaign that didn’t feature any. Reaching more than 40 countries, Toyota’s first ever global campaign was the company’s biggest effort in history. What better way to launch our new role as a mobility company, than by partnering pinnacle of human movement itself, the Olympic and Paralympic games. By design, "Start Your Impossible" elevated the Paralympics, for the very first time in history, to be on par with the Olympics, setting new inclusivity and diversity standards and redefined the way major brands should sponsor global events.

Tasked with creating the first-ever global campaign for Toyota, we set out to change people's perceptions of Toyota from that of a car company to a mobility company. We challenged the world with our rallying cry, "Start Your Impossible."With nine different films and online content, our massive, global 360 campaign used top-tier athletes and inspiring influencers. We told the stories of a visually impaired Paralympic hopeful, an Olympic ice skater, an eight-time Paralympic gold medalist, a Syrian refugee Olympic swimmer, a man who climbed Everest with no arms, and even a 100-year-old runner from Japan, just to name a few. We not only redefined the role of the automotive partnership by becoming the first-ever Mobility Partner for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but we also used inspiring mobility stories to bring to life Toyota's expansive vision - mobility for all.

Because this was Toyota’s first global brand campaign, we needed to reach a really large audience — the whole world. The Olympic and Paralympic Movements were the perfect platforms, not just because of global reach, but because fans and enthusiasts share the exact mindset we were seeking. They’re inspired by the passion of the Games and the stories of individual struggle. So we searched the world for the most-inspiring mobility stories — universal stories that represented mobility challenges across different continents, abilities, regions, races/ethnicities, ages, and even genders. Since our approach was to reach people in more than 40 countries in 28 languages, our campaign had to resonate with everyone. So in order to make sure everyone was represented, Olympians, Paralympians, influencers, and everyday heroes shared the spotlight in the most-inclusive and diverse integrated campaign to date.

We kicked off our campaign using the biggest platform in the U.S. (the Super Bowl) to springboard our launch on the biggest platform in the world — the Olympic and Paralympic Games.Our campaign spanned across 40+ countries and 28 languages. It lasted the entire duration of both Games with coverage across every platform, ranging from TV to streaming and digital.Our executions featured such a wide variety athletes and influencers that we were able to align their airing with contextually relevant events throughout both Games. We also placed ads featuring Paralympians during Olympic events to generate interest in the upcoming Paralympic Games, furthering our mission to elevate the perception of the Paralympic Movement across the globe.

The “Start Your Impossible” campaign launched the next era of Toyota’s business. It was so successful, that we more than exceeded expectations for both of our campaign objectives.

Unaided Olympic and Paralympic Sponsorship awareness were significantly higher than the benchmark across all key markets. The Toyota Sponsorship awareness was so strong that it made significant gains on the 100-year sponsor, Coca-Cola, despite it being our first year as a sponsor.

The campaign achieved significant gains in Mobility Brand, Mobility Leadership, and Robotics Leadership KPIs that ladder up to our ultimate goal of shifting mobility perceptions for the brand.

Total generated global impressions reach over 18.5 billion with over 60 percent awareness of the Toyota “Start Your Impossible” tagline on average across core countries. In the majority of countries, Toyota was seen as the Mobility leader according to all benchmarks.