Saatchi & Saatchi Unveils All-New Toyota Camry with Unexpected Musical Beat

Toyota Motor North America and Saatchi & Saatchi today unveil the launch of the automaker’s all-new Camry, America’s best-selling car for 15 years running. Saatchi & Saatchi’s Los Angeles and Dallas offices spearheaded the integrated campaign aptly titled “Sensations.” Designed to radically alter people’s perceptions about the Camry and the sedan category as a whole, Saatchi & Saatchi employs legendary music hits in four iconic broadcast spots and matches its audience's emotions with emojis in a world-first social media campaign. 

“Sensations was a great creative journey to embark on with Toyota,” said Jason Schragger, Chief Creative Officer of Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles. “The work is centered around the superior driving experience of the new Camry through stylistic themes so we can create a meaningful connection with our audience. The songs and emojis are meant to share and relay the new excitement and mood that drivers will experience with their new Camry.”

This breakthrough campaign uses iconic music tracks to tell the story of the all-new Camry. In three broadcast spots – Thrill, Wonder and Indulge – the music of classic hits like Roxette’s The Look, Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now, and What a Wonderful World allow the vocals to act as an emotionally powerful narrative. In a fourth spot, Wild, the powerful sounds of Suzi Quatro’s Wild One drive an exciting new vision of how it feels to drive the all-new Camry. Every spot is supported by near-musical sounds recorded directly from the Camry itself (engine revs, tires screeching, etc.). 

“With Sensations, we were determined to bring the transformative aspects of the new Camry into its narrative, to translate the feel of the drive to the viewer,” said Fabio Costa, Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles. The soundtracks – coupled with the sounds of the car and layered vocals of popular tracks – set the stage for viewers to imagine the magic and excitement of the drive and the actual slickness of the car.” 

By juxtaposing social elements, traditional photography and car shots, along with mood-inducing music, Saatchi & Saatchi and Toyota showcase an ability to engage with audiences in an inclusive way.

 

“The launch of the next-generation Camry is incredibly important for Toyota, and we wanted to create a campaign that matched its excellence and the excitement of the new design. Sensations perfectly conveys what people will feel driving the new Camry,” said Ed Laukes, group vice president, marketing, Toyota. “Once again, our Total Toyota agency partners at Saatchi & Saatchi, Conill, Burrell and interTrend elevated our expectations and delivered an outstanding integrated campaign resonating with what Toyota envisions and what our owners will experience while driving the car.”

 

The agency’s creative endeavor was to transform expectations of the Camry driving experience and shift the focus of owning a Camry from an economical choice to more of an emotional one. To do this on social media, Saatchi & Saatchi created an altogether new approach to Twitter audience targeting; short social videos, each featuring different emotion-eliciting emoji, will be targeted to Twitter users based upon their recent emoji use on the platform. Saatchi & Saatchi’s Sensations campaign marks the first time this advertising strategy – with custom-built creative – has been employed by an automotive brand on Twitter.

 

“With so much noise on digital platforms we wanted to create a campaign that was not only targeted but that connected to the user,” says Chris Pierantozzi, Executive Creative Director, Digital, for Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles. “Matching what you see with the emojis you use creates a direct link to the emotional response on viewing the spots. The campaign is all about what you feel when you are driving the all-new Camry, and who hasn’t used an emoji to reflect how you are feeling?”