Scion Campaign Has Personality-Driven Ads
The technology, from rich media vendor Interpolls, updates ad content based on user interaction.
The technology, from rich media vendor Interpolls, updates ad content based on user interaction.
Toyota’s Scion brand is running the same creative to promote all three of its vehicle models in a new campaign, allowing its audience to customize the rich media units themselves by interacting with the ads.
The HTML-based ads, which use technology from Interpolls, automatically update when a user chooses one of several options presented. For example, one ad asks users to choose a personality type that best fits them. Depending on the answer selected, the ad reloads with content from the appropriate Scion model that reflects that type. Once a user submits an answer, a results panel appears with more content related to the user’s choice, such as additional images or video.
Using this technology, Scion can let its target audience interact with all three of its models in a single ad execution. And because users share information within the ad unit, Interpolls is able to serve a more relevant ad to users based on their interest and interactions, according to Peter Kim, Interpolls’ president and CEO.
“Rich media is everywhere, so it’s not about the ‘wow’ factor anymore. Our technology is all about results,” Kim told ClickZ. “We give users a reason to interact with the ads, and we pique their interest with our questions. That’s the true metric of awareness.”
Within the ad units, users will be able to configure each of Scion’s three models, watch product videos, locate a dealer, or tell a friend about the site through instant messenger, utilizing either AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo Messenger. The campaign is expected to run through March 2007, focusing on sites that reach a young and urban audience. At launch, the sites are appearing on Shockwave, Atom Films, Bolt, CarDomain, GameSpot, ClubPlanet, Planet Out, Savvy and UrbanRacer.
The results panel for Scion’s ads also includes an RSS feed with the latest news from Scion, so the ad unit updates automatically when the feed is updated.
Interpolls can swap out low-performing ads without changing ad code on a publisher’s site. That allows the company to choose the questions, subject to clients’ approval, that create the highest-performing ads for clients, Kim said. Interpolls has worked with Scion since parent Toyota launched the brand in late 2003. Scion has used Interpolls ads in other campaigns for data collection, location-based offers by ZIP code, and product configuration, Kim said.
Interpolls has also recently launched a new unit with ad-synching technology, which it implemented earlier this month on Yahoo’s home page for the launch of Disney’s animated film, “Cars.” The new format enables interactions between multiple ad placements on the same Web pages.