Search »

Toyota Bets $4M YouTube Sells Corollas

The upcoming weeks may prove seminal in how marketers judge the ROI of social-media source YouTube, as Toyota rolls out a new campaign to sell its 2007 Corolla sedan.

Toyota Motor Corp.‘s comedy-themed campaign is one of the most elaborate and expensive in YouTube’s history; the car giant paid about $4 million to be featured on the Google-owned video site.

While online marketing is doing well, there has been a disconnect in advertising to consumers on sites such as YouTube. While the content is cutting edge, the ad delivery is not - usually static banner ads or video ads on the home page. Advertisers looking to capitalize on the sites’ popularity are pushing for more interactive goodies including games and contests. The rub, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal, is that these types of campaigns can be too labor and capital intensive for a niche promo.

Toyota pushed YouTube to expand its standard promo offerings and came up with a customized alternative. The result is a new area of the YouTube site just for Toyota, showcasing ‘Best in Jest,’ a feature that serves up the latest comedy videos each week. Toyota is also offering a sketch-comedy contest in which users can post funny videos with the chance to win as much as $25,000.

Though the promotion is innovative it may not prove viable for other advertisers. As currently built, the campaign simply requires too much time and money. YouTube is said to be addressing these concerns.

YouTube had 66.2 million unique U.S. visitors in January, according to Nielsen Online, making it the top video site.