The Alpha Marketer
Beginning in April, Toyota began marketing its Scion on Whyville.net, an online community that is frequented by mostly 8-15-year-old children. Their purpose is both for short and long-term: influence their parents buying decision for a vehicle and to grow up wanting to buy a Toyota themselves.
The campaign seems to be a great success so far. The New York Times says that the word "Scion" has been used in chats over 78,000 times; and hundreds of virtual Scions were bought, using the Whyville currency called "clams." That and the community meeting place called "Club Scion" was visited 33,741 times.
"Toyota is paying Whyville - not with virtual clams - by the number of visitors on the site, but declined to name a figure. Whyville reaches an audience of 1.6 million."In April, Toyota also launched its youth-oriented economy car Yaris with an integrated campaign that included 10-second "mobisodes" - video episodes on mobile devices - and interactive banner ad games."
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