I am generally a skeptic towards advertising. I think most of it is ineffective for the majority people, and some of it is just painful. This is why advertising has to reach such large numbers: to get any reasonable conversion, they need to be seen by a great many people.
However, this is a great example of targeted marketing:
I’m at the gas pump, I’m paying an arm, a leg, and two more arms (don’t ask where I got them) for gas…you can see that I’m at $22 for 5 gallons of gas. I see this advertisement, and I have to agree: Yikes!
So what is the solution? According to this ad, Toyota. Toyota apparently makes the most fuel efficient cars. Cool, I didn’t know that. Isn’t that relevant?
Now if I didn’t already have a Toyota Camry, this would be very intriguing for me. What if I have an aging Honda that I was thinking about selling? I might seriously consider a Toyota for my next car…the savings would be tremendous.
Unlike most unfocused, bland, broad advertising, this hits me when it is most effective: when I literally am paying the “yikes” amount for gas. Nice work, Toyota.
One Comment
Haha, that is awesome. Simple and it works.
Probably would be too expensive, but would be amazing if they went a step further and made it interactive somehow.. like while you’re standing there watching your money drain away, a little display lets you select your car brand and model, and see exactly how much $ you would have saved if you drove a Prius (or whatever). Maybe even multiply that out over a year’s worth of pumps, that’d be a pretty concrete and convincing argument.