Toyota Hilux Gets ‘Tougher-er’ in New Campaign from FCB Joburg

Toyota Hilux, renowned for its legendary toughness and for nearly 50 years the market leader in a hotly-contested segment of the market, goes up against its toughest competition yet in a new campaign from FCB Joburg.

Rugged, unmapped mountain trails; rivers in flood; inaccessible fishing spots – they’re child’s play for the country’s favourite dependable bakkie. But our digital lifestyle? That’s a whole new category of competition.

A bit of a stretch? Pitting the Toyota Hilux against technology? Not considering the brief the team of Creative Director and Copy writer, Tian van den Heever, and Art Director, Kyra Antrobus, was given.

The creative duo was briefed to showcase the new tough look and face of the new Toyota Hilux; its updated front grille, updated bumper and headlight design. In addition, given that our world – the places we live, work, learn, party, shop and so on – is forever changing as more and more distractions turn our attention away from the real beauty of life, it was asked to dramtise that tough will be forever needed, long into the future.

The solution was a 360° campaign led by a television commercial, and supported by radio, TV sponsorship, bought media and below-the-line elements pushing the campaign message of ‘The new face of tougher-er’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxozxiSJDuY

Van den Heever explained: “Like most things in the world today, cars are evolving faster than ever before. However, the Toyota Hilux driver will always have a need to take his bakkie off-road, where the dependability of Hilux is the one unwavering constant.“For this reason, we wanted to show that the enduring quality of the Hilux – it’s toughness – is what our world will forever need. Toyota Hilux is the future of tough, and its updated look really is the new face of tougher-er.”

The campaign will flight for a month, and the TV spot was shot over two days by Oscar Strauss of Hungry Films at various locations throughout the Cape.

Credits:

Client: Toyota South Africa

Brand: Toyota Hilux

Senior Manager, Advertising and Digital Marketing: Tasneem Lorgat

Advertising Manager: Lensha Dlamini

Creative agency: FCB Joburg

Business Unit Director: Reagan Kok

Account Director: Darren Morris

Executive creative director: Brett Morris

Creative Director: Tian Van Den Heever

Copywriter: Tian Van Den Heever

Art director: Kyra Antrobus

Strategic planner: Stuart Sims

TV Producer:     Iolanthe Grobler

Production house: Hungry Films

Director: Oscar Strauss

Post-production: Tessa Ford, Fuel Content, Sterling Sound

Description of TVC:

We see a family in the Hilux driving out of the city. The father is driving while the mother is on her mobile, the daughter watching a movie on a tablet and the son lost in some AR fantasy. The journey takes them further and further from civilization. We see on his wife’s phone that she’s lost signal. She looks up quizzically, then smiles in surprise. It’s beautiful outside. She puts her phone down. Our man turns onto a long-forgotten dirt road and the Hilux plunges ever further away-from-it-all. The bumpy road gets the girl’s attention. Her eye widen in amazement when she sees where they are. The iPad is a distant memory. Now the Hilux is descending a super gnarly, steep decline. Rocks slip as the truck bounces and crawls its way down. The boy’s VR goggles are no longer staying in place, bouncing up and down in time with the mountain track. He yanks them off in annoyance, but then gasps when he sees the super badass 4×4 action that’s taking place in real life. The Hilux reaches the bottom of the hill and we see their final destination.

 

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