Sienna Goes Social for New Marketing Campaign

Recognizing today’s tech-savvy families have scant time or the inclination to sit down and watch TV, Toyota’s marketing campaign for the ’15 Sienna minivan is entirely on social or digital media.

“We knew that the target market of young families, 30-45-year-olds with two or more children don’t really have a lot of time in their days, and they’re consuming media whenever they can,” Alex Du, manager-vehicle marketing and communications for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., tells WardsAuto in a phone interview.

“Really, the most effective way (to reach them) is to do it through social media,” Du continues. “That’s where we can do some really funny or cute or really interesting clips that (prospective buyers) can share with their friends, and they can consume whenever they have time.” 

The Sienna campaign, which also bypasses the traditional advertising outlets of print and radio, launched online recently and, in another novel move, has ads that were created by and star people made famous via social media.

Toyota gave the Eh Bee family of Vine fame, Matthew Clarke of YouTube’s “Conversations with My 2-Year-Old” videos, and Daniel Hashimoto of YouTube’s “Action Movie Kid” videos almost free rein to create commercials for the Sienna, which is refreshed for ’15 with a new interior and tech features.

“We provided very loose guidelines (and) were amazed with the ideas that they came up with,” Du says, noting Clarke’s talking and crying Sienna in his “Conversation with My Sienna” spots was entirely his creation.

“When he came up with that idea we were just blown away,” Du says. “And that’s one of the things we also challenge ourselves to do is to (showcase) more creativity, so we went with whatever the (Sienna ad creators) thought of and we wholeheartedly embraced it.”

The Eh Bees, Clarke and Hashimoto were selected for their devoted social media-followings and also what Du calls their progressive families.

All three creators are hip – one of the Eh Bees’ most popular videos has them rapping to Dr. Dre – and haven’t forgotten their past lives since having children, Du says. The edgy and quirky ‘15 Sienna spots created by the Eh Bees, Clarke and Hashimoto are in the spirit of the “Swagger Wagon” theme already in place from prior Sienna ad campaigns.

“The idea is traditionally minivan people are settling for it, it’s the ultimate sacrifice once they have kids,” he says. “But with Gen Y especially we know that they’re into keeping their own identity, so they’re not sacrificing anything when they’re becoming parents.

“We’re trying to get parents to embrace the minivan now, so instead of settling to be really passionate about the minivan,” he continues.

Despite the Sienna being a refreshed vehicle, Toyota marketers had no problem getting the budget for the ’15 minivan’s elaborate campaign, with Du noting there is “a lot of love” among the automaker’s top management for the Sienna, notably from Bob Carter, senior vice president-automotive operations.

The refreshed version of the minivan, which was last all-new in ’11, includes an upgraded interior, with the softer materials current Sienna owners asked for, and a black-leather interior option in the SE grade, another owner request.

Also new for the Sienna is a chestnut-color interior available on Limited grades, and the ability to use the van’s built-in microphone to amplify a driver’s voice to passengers in the rear, a feature Toyota calls Driver Easy Speak and which has been attracting a lot of attention.

Du classifies the microphone, standard on SE, XLE and Limited grades of the minivan, not as a child-discipline tool but as a way to curb driver distraction, reducing the amount of time a driver needs to turn his head away from the road.

Toyota expects 60% of ’15 Siennas sold to have the Easy Speak feature. It won’t be available on the L and LE base-grade models.

The automaker wants to continue the Sienna social-media campaign through the end of 2014, and maybe have it expand to TV.

“I think we’re just at the tip of the iceberg and we’re hoping to sustain this through the end of the year, if not beyond,” Du says.

Sienna sales were flat through June, down 0.4% to 62,291 units. The Dodge Caravan is the No.1-selling minivan so far this year, outdoing the Sienna by roughly 10,000 deliveries in the first six months.

The current-generation Sienna reached its peak last year with 121,117 units sold, WardsAuto data shows, which placed it just south of the Honda Odyssey (129,000), Chrysler Town & Country (124,000) and Caravan (122,000).

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