Automaker Toyota is activating its exclusive sponsorship of The Weather Channel?s iPad application with a rich media ad campaign centered on the 10th anniversary of its Prius hybrid car.

Since the April 2 launch, Toyota has been the exclusive partner of The Weather Channel application for iPad, which TWC claims is the most-downloaded weather application on Apple?s tablet. Medialets created the rich media ad units for the Prius campaign. 

?TWC?s iPhone app has continuously been a top download in the iTunes store, which led us to believe the same would be true of the iPad version of the app,? said Kim Kyaw, senior media strategist at Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., Torrance, CA. ?With TWC?s iPad app being available for free when the device first launched, Toyota felt there would be strong adoption rates for both the iPad and the app.

?As such, we wanted to be part of the conversation,? she said. ?We collaborated with TWC to provide an innovative and engaging experience for consumers on a new media platform.

?The partnership offered great visibility and enabled us to reach a large consumer base.?

Toyota Motor Corp. is the world's largest automobile maker by sales and production.

The digital properties of The Weather Channel Companies, which include the weather.com site, The Weather Channel Desktop and The Weather Channel Mobile, reach more than 40 million unique users each month.

TWC recently surpassed 1 million downloads of its iPad application.

Rich media provides wow factor
A large banner across the top of The Weather Channel?s iPad application features the Toyota logo and the tagline ?sponsored by Toyota, moving forward.?

New Toyota creative on The Weather Channel for iPad application focuses on the 10th anniversary of the Toyota Prius.

?The TWC iPad app sponsorship is part of a larger campaign supporting the 10th anniversary of the Toyota Prius,? Ms. Kyaw said. ?TWC?s eco- and tech-friendly demographic aligns well with our target Prius consumer.

?This demographic uses technology to enhance its lifestyle while simultaneously showing concern for its impact on the environment,? she said.

Created with Medialets, the Toyota Prius campaign includes a 300x250 mobile ad unit, as well as full-screen interstitial and pre-roll video ad units.

The weather dashboard includes a 300x250 ad unit. This interactive ad prompts users to draw a shape with their fingers within the ad?such as a tree, a leaf or a circle for a sun?and the shape then becomes part of the rich media creative.

Here is a screen grab:

A 30-second pre-roll video ad includes a 300x50 leave-behind banner ad.

The user then has the option to change the vehicle?s color from a palette of Prius colors.  

A full-page interactive interstitial?capped at once per session?shows a car driving on screen.

The Toyota Prius ads click through to an iPad-friendly site. Here is a screen grab:

The campaign within The Weather Channel?s iPad application began in early August and will run until Aug. 31.

?The most successful mobile rich media campaigns are those that embrace the unique capabilities of mobile,? said Elena Perez, director of marketing at Medialets, New York.

?In this case, we used HTML5 and JavaScript to enable the drawing feature on Toyota?s Prius campaign and leverarge mobile?s 'touch' capabilities in a way that hasn?t been done before on iPad,? she said.

TWC courts iPad users
The Weather Channel application for iPad marries TWC mobile content with TWC television content to give consumers customized weather information at the tap of a finger, including an index of maps, a video center and severe weather coverage alerts.

The Weather Channel application for iPad takes advantage of the multi-touch iPad display to let weather-seekers choose the most relevant forecast for them.

The application also features future radar imagery in motion on a map, using proprietary TruPoint technology developed by The Weather Channel.

Toyota?s sponsorship of the iPad application lets TWC offer it free of charge via iTunes.

?The mobile industry in general is always looking for interesting rich media creative that takes advantage of new platforms and devices,? said Cameron Clayton, vice president of mobile at The Weather Channel, Atlanta.

?In addition, we think this integration is innovative for iPad due to the HTML and JavaScript functionality as opposed to Flash,? he said.

Final Take

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