Toyota Campaign Celebrates California's Diverse Population

Independent media and ad agency H/L partnered with recurring client Toyota to create a series of spots celebrating the relationship between the automotive brand and the Bay Area’s robust Hispanic and Asian population. 

In Northern California, Toyota is the number-one selling auto brand, a phenomenon primarily driven by a preference for Toyota amongst Hispanic and Asian new car shoppers. This area's marvel of diversity is one of the main contributors, factoring into why Northern California Toyota’s Market Share is the highest in the nation. To honour this relationship between Toyota and its consumers, H/L created a bilingual regional campaign in English and Spanish. The campaign spans multiple channels, forging deeper bonds with multicultural audiences by engaging with them authentically and directly. This strategic creative plan resulted in a two percentage point increase to 23% market share among Hispanic consumers and a four percentage point increase to 19% market share among Asian consumers in Northern California in the last year.

Produced in close collaboration with their in-house production studio, Wolfhouse, H/L's creative development of these commercials draws heavily upon cultural insights specific to Northern California. Executive creative director, Dallas Baker, and director and cinematographer for Wolfhouse, Carlo Silvio, led multilingual teams in scripting, designing and shooting each commercial to authentically deliver the cultural messages within storylines that resonate with Northern California audiences. The commercials, 'Zoom' and 'Perspective' follow a Hispanic family and a multicultural friend group, respectively, with Toyota playing a key part in each story’s highly memorable moments against striking Northern California backdrops.

“Northern California is one of the most culturally diverse places in the world," says Dallas. "That diversity is generational, including Toyota loyalists, and new drivers alike. It isn't enough to simply translate our commercials into different languages. Instead, we honour this region's ethnic, cultural, and demographic diversity in simple, straightforward, and relevant storytelling.”