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Toyota's Latin musician Snapchat collaboration intertwines channels for innovative storytelling

Toyota is tapping Snapchat and popular Latin musicians to weave an innovative storytelling experience that piggybacks on the Billboard Latin Music Awards with an experience that requires friends to band together. 

The auto manufacturer has partnered with Latin artists El Dasa, Goyo of the hip-hop group ChocQuibTown and Natalia Lafourcade for a unique Snapchat piece that requires users to follow each account and place three smartphones side by side. Toyota is targeting the Latin demographic for promotion of its RAV4 Hybrid vehicle and ties into last week?s awards show for greater awareness. 

"The Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Snapchat campaign is unique in that we are the first marketer to experiment with multi-device experiential story telling in Snapchat," said Florence Drakton, social media marketing manager at Toyota Motor Sales, U.S. "Toyota is about innovation and engaging with guests through technology.  

"Music is also an important tent pole especially as it relates to our Hispanic guests," she said. "Music is huge in the social media space and it?s an integral part of our influencer marketing initiative.   

"Platforms like Snapchat have a devout user base and are quickly establishing themselves into platforms used for everyday communications. Working with influencers, especially Snap partners, we continually look to experiment in these channels to keep our brand relevant and reach our guests in new and engaging ways."

Toyota social tricks
Toyota is hoping to support its #AceptaElReto through its interactive storytelling experience on Snapchat, hoping users will follow the story and share their own stories of breaking out of their comfort zone. Users follow the personal accounts of the three artists on Snapchat and then line up their smartphones to view the piece in its entirety. 
Once smartphones are arranged in the specific order, with Snapchat account @ElDasaOficial first followed by @Goyo_thegirl and all the way to the right @nlafourcade, users can watch the artists move throughout the various screens. Each musician has his or her own space, representation of his or her own musical style, for his or her respective Snapchat channel. 

The music artists all have drastically different styles with Goyo being a hip-hop artist, El Dasa, a Mexican regional musician and Natalia Lafourcade, a pop singer. Each artist steps out of his or her comfort zone, and switches with the others into the corresponding Snapchat channel and room. 


The performers also introduce the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, which is featured behind them in all of the shots. The idea behind the campaign is that they are stepping out of their comfort zone. 

Toyota is hoping that the musicians' large audiences on Snapchat will share the campaign and their thoughts on social media with the hashtag #AceptaElReto. 

Driving social media
Working with 100 interchangeable clips, Toyota also reached Facebook users with video ads for the RAV4, customized for each viewer, resulting in more than 100,000 different spots (see more).

Toyota also paired a secret emoji innovation on Twitter with a contest to band together sports team fans in a show of support (see more).

"We set out to tell a relevant music story that extended our sponsorship of the Billboard Latin Music Awards and to innovate and experiment in a new space, all centered around the launch of our RAV4 Hybrid earlier this year, that challenged guests to get out of their comfort zone," Ms. Drakton said.