Ideas For Good

Toyota had just gone through one of the biggest recalls in history. The auto manufacturer was being portrayed negatively in all media outlets. Brand perception and sales were at an all-time low. Toyota needed a campaign that could help change the conversation; a way to remind people of their innovative engineering, quality products, and philanthropic outreach.

I was part of the team (Art Director/ACD) which created the Ideas For Good campaign. Ideas For Good was a nation-wide initiative which invited consumers to repurpose Toyota’s automotive technology to benefit society in the non-automotive space. A team of leading experts, including an editor of Wired and a Stanford professor, narrowed down the 18,000+ submissions to the top 25 ideas which had the most potential to help mankind. The general public then chose the top 5 winners from those top 25 finalists.

These five winners were rewarded with a rapid-prototyping weekend at Carnegie Melon University. During that weekend the winners partnered with various engineers from Toyota, Deeplocal, and Carnegie Mellon to transform their ideas from simple sketches on paper, to functional, working prototypes.

To introduce the contest we ran a series of television commercials portraying different examples of how a contestant might repurpose Toyota technology to make the world a better place.

Henry Alex Rubin directed with Matthew Libatique recruited as Director of Photography.

We planned a digital and social push for Phase II of the contest by airing two short films. Wanting to demonstrate Toyota’s cutting-edge technology, and show a tease of what the rapid-prototype weekend will be like, we built two of the ideas we introduced in our broadcast spots. Creative-engineering firm, Deeplocal helped bring our “Medical Relief Tent” and “Roller Coaster” ideas to life as a proof of concept.

Directed and edited by ZCDC.

We promoted these two documentary films through influencers, bloggers, and on Toyota’s social channels.

To extend the reach of the campaign we produced a print campaign. Working with the photographer Trevor Pearson we created a series of print/digital ads showing different ways the consumer might repurpose Toyota technology to make the world a better place. Accompanying the photography was copy describing Toyota’s cutting edge technology and the Ideas For Good program.

The public voted, and the winners of the Ideas For Good initiative were selected. These winners were flown to Pittsburgh, PA for a rapid prototyping weekend to turn their ideas into prototypes. With help from Carnegie Melon University, Deeplocal, and a team of Toyota engineers, these ideas now have the potential to save tens of millions of lives.

I was the creative lead of the Prototype Weekend. Finale video directed and edited by ZCDC.