Putting brand wheels on reality TV
By Simon Fuller. Creative reality. Toyota’s Scion has rolled roll out a webseries. But the reality show Reinvent The Wheels, made in partnership with creative agency ATTIK, isn’t just another online series. Because Scion is using it to offer young creatives a helping hand.
Reinvent The Wheels gets a half-dozen emerging artists expressing themselves over the course of six weekly episodes, with participants getting a chance to hone their skills while competing for fame and fortune. And just in case you’re wondering how the web series integrates the Scion brand itself, the show sees each of them taking on the task of transforming a car – with limited resources at their disposal.
“The brand has always stood for authenticity, customisation and community, and all three of those values led us to reality programming and using the web,” says Katherine Stout, account director at ATTIK. “Scion has also supported emerging artists and we wanted to find a way to include that. We’re always looking for new ways to spread Scion’s messages, and we know the target audience – 18-to-24 year olds – spends a great amount of time interacting online, sharing, socialising and watching. Developing an online reality show was a fresh approach to engaging and entertaining them.”
But while Reinvent The Wheels has had plenty of publicity, it isn’t an exercise in branding.
“We wanted the show to be authentic,” explains Stout. “Very early on in the project, we decided not to brand Scion in the Reinvent The Wheels show. The show has its own logo and creative look and feel to its marketing support. We believed that if people were reminded that the show was basically an ad, it wouldn’t be as compelling or as genuine. We wouldn’t have the same credibility. That is very important to Scion.
“However, Reinvent The Wheels is a multi-phased campaign,” adds Stout. “So once the show has ended, all marketing touting the show, will have the Scion logo and brand voice. All efforts in this phase showcase the creative work supported by Scion over the last four months.”
Audiences can see the show unfold, at ReinventTheWheels.com, where new episodes premier each Monday. The show is also embeddable into other sites through a widget, and viewers can follow the drama via a Facebook app, their mobiles and YouTube.
“Social networking and iphone apps are now givens and expectations for any campaign we do,” says Stout. “The question we constantly challenge ourselves with is ‘what’s next?’. Scion is [a] brand of trend-leaders – from the people that work there to the Scion owners. [And] as a team, we look for what hasn’t been done and what we can do better.”
