Toyota's Product Launch: Marketing 2.0 Style

There's a lot of skepticism about web 2.0. People ask me--where's the money? and where's the evidence? Memories (mostly bad) of the boom-n-bust of web 1.0 (e-commerce) is still fresh for many including me. So, I am always on the look out for hard data that provides evidence of how web 2.0 is working.

Here is a blog that provides some evidence of Toyota's product launch in Greece.

For the launch of their new hatchback model, the Auris, Toyota Hellas wanted a digital campaign that would promote the new car's interior design and the feel drivers get when sitting inside the Auris' modern "cockpit". The campaign needed to actively engage consumers with the brand, to generate leads and "test-drive" requests.

OgilvyOne Athens decided to think "Web 2.0" and find a way to invite consumers to do most of the talking and promoting. So Greek bloggers were invited to test-drive the car for a week if they would post their findings on their respective blogs, which would also be collected into a central blog. At the same time, a banner campaign invited the general public to request a test-drive, which could also win them a 4-star hotel weekend in Greece with of course the Auris at their disposal.

The Auris Blog campaign lasted for 10 weeks. There were 85 requests from Greek Bloggers and the car was given to 15 of them after a careful selection process. 55 different posts were written, most of them including photos and videos. (A digital camera was given as a gift to the bloggers in order to get multimedia content from them). There were 175 comments to the posts.

The Auris Blog had more than 52.000 visits by 41.000 unique visitors and the overall response rate of the banner campaign was at 4.75%. More importantly, 2.000 test-drive requests were submitted from this campaign, accounting for 50% of the total test-drive requests received through all channels (phone, in-store, events or promotions).

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I wonder if there's a site that systematically tracks the results of experiments and initiatives using web 2.0 ideas.