Hey, Kid, You Want to Buy a Toyota Scion?

By JULIE BOSMAN

New York Times, 6/14/06

IN April, Toyota quietly began an unusual virtual promotion of its small, boxy Scion: it paid for the car's product placement in Whyville.net, an online interactive community populated almost entirely by 8- to 15-year-olds.

Never mind that they cannot actually buy the car. Toyota is counting on Whyvillians to do two things — influence their parents' car purchases and maybe grow up with some Toyota brand loyalty.

It may appear counterintuitive, but Toyota says the promotion is working. Ten days into the campaign, visitors to the site had used the word "Scion" in online chats more than 78,000 times; hundreds of virtual Scions were purchased, using "clams," the currency of Whyville; and the community meeting place "Club Scion" was visited 33,741 times. These online Scion owners customized their cars, drove around the virtual Whyville and picked up their Scion-less friends for a ride.

Toyota is not the first car company to engage video game and online game audiences through product placement. Car companies like DaimlerChrysler have long pitched teenagers and young adults through product placements in video games, and Cadillac has incorporated its cars in a Microsoft Xbox 360 game.

Whyville was founded in 1999 as an educational online community and now reaches an audience of 1.6 million, who create their own personas within the site and interact with other visitors. The executives behind Whyville acknowledged the paradox of marketing a car to future drivers. "It's not lost on us, and it's not lost on Scion," said Jay Goss, the chief operating officer for Whyville. "By definition, this is a sponsor of Whyville that can't have as its customers the kids who visit the site. But they know that kids influence parents, and kids grow up."

Toyota is paying Whyville by the number of visitors on the site, but declined to name a figure.

Targeting so-called tweens or teenagers long before they can buy a product is a tactic that more marketers are exploring, said Matthew Diamond, the chief executive of Alloy Media and Marketing, a consultancy in New York that specializes in youth marketing.

"It's early branding," Mr. Diamond said. "You are branding your product at a relevant time to the young person. You're establishing that brand presence and positive association, since important buying decisions are forthcoming."

For example, retailers like Staples and Office Depot are pitching high school juniors and seniors about products that they will buy in college, Mr. Diamond said. "They will begin to target you because they know you're going to be on your own," he said.

Since the Scion was introduced nationally two years ago, Toyota has aggressively marketed it to young drivers. Its median buyer is 31, the youngest in the automotive industry, Toyota says. The company has employed nontraditional advertising strategies. For example, it sponsors monthly nightclub events and sells Scion-themed gear on its Web site, including D.J. bags ($55) and snowboard jackets ($180).

One of the goals in introducing the Scion was to cultivate an un-Toyota audience. Nearly 80 percent of Scion buyers are new to the Toyota family, said Deborah Senior, the national marketing and communications manager for Scion. In aiming at an underage audience, she said, the company is thinking about relationships with future car buyers. "I understand that they are very influential," Ms. Senior said of the intended audience. "The main goal is to support the experience that the Whyvillians have at Whyville and engage them. It may be that down the road they are interested in buying a car and they will think about Scion."

Because the Scion appeals to an unconventional consumer, Ms. Senior said, "a lot of what we do is based on the mind-set rather than the specific age group."

The power of younger consumers has grown stronger in recent years. According to research from Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com in Rockville, Md., 39 percent of parents of 10- and 11-year-olds say their children have a significant impact on brand purchases. Both boys and girls age 9 to 11 say they spend without thinking, and 9-to-11-year-olds account for 53 percent of total buying power among children 3 to 11. (They hope to keep spending, too — 66 percent of boys age 9 to 11 say they want to be rich.)

Visitors to game sites like Whyville are generally open to product placement on the Web, many marketers say. According to a survey by comScore Media Metrix, only 15 percent of avid gamers said they would be unlikely to play games with product placements included.

But the key to reaching younger consumers, said Mr. Diamond of Alloy, is to capture them before they have any opinions on brands.

"Talk to the young person in their environment in a relevant way," he said. "I think too often advertisers wait to convert them later, and then it's too late."