AHAA to Honor Toyota with the 2015 Marketer of the Year Award
FAIRFAX, Va., April 23, 2015 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — AHAA: The Voice of Hispanic Marketing announced today that Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. was selected as the 2015 winner of the AHAA Marketer of the Year Award. It joins a prestigious short list of elite brands that have received the award, including Walmart and McDonald’s.
“Toyota has a long history of valuing the Hispanic consumer, leveraging the right insights to develop some of the most impactful digital and social engagement efforts in the automotive category – in fact, their branded advertising efforts won three U.S.H. Idea Awards last year, including a Top Five Idea award,” said AHAA Chair Aldo Quevedo, Principal/Creative Director of Richards/Lerma. “The combination of maintaining a culturally relevant and authentic relationship with Hispanics, its proper execution of a true Total Market approach, and continued investment made Toyota a clear choice for the AHAA Marketer of the Year Award.”
Toyota is one of the top auto spenders against Hispanic with Hispanic buyers accounting for 16 percent of Toyota’s 2014 sales. In December 2013, it launched the Total Toyota or T2 marketing model, a true Total Market approach by AHAA standards where the brand’s general market, Hispanic, African-American and Asian-American agencies cohesively work together across all marketing strategies and executions. To complement the agency approach, Toyota’s in-house multicultural marketing team is integrated across all product marketing teams. The T2 model, which incorporates best practices from other global industries and covers the spectrum of advertising and creative communications, delivers on Toyota’s “Let’s Go Places” promise to serve as a model for innovation, enriching lives and connecting with customers in new ways.
As a result of this T2 approach and under the careful stewardship of Hispanic agency-of-record Conill Advertising, Toyota launched a successful Hispanic-targeted campaign “Más Que Un Auto” (or “More Than a Car”) to thank Latino Toyota owners for their support, celebrate their long-standing relationship and reward them for their loyalty. The continuing effort centers on an online hub, www.masqueunauto.com, where consumers can express their individuality and loyalty by creating a custom name badge for their beloved Toyota. Once visitors enter their information, high-quality, chrome-like badges are produced and delivered to at no cost. To date, more than 90,000 of name badges have been delivered.
“In 2013, Latinos spent $38 billion on new automobiles,” said Jack Hollis, Group VP of Marketing at Toyota Motor Sales. “Toyota is not taking our success for granted. We are carefully and intelligently positioning ourselves for growth with Hispanics at our marketing core. On behalf of our T2 agencies that have made this success possible, we are honored to receive the AHAA Marketer of the Year Award.”
Luis Rosero, director of Toyota’s Hispanic Business Strategy Group (HBSG), will accept this award during the Delegate Luncheon at the 2015 AHAA Annual Conference on Wednesday, April 29 at 12:45 p.m. at the Eden Roc Miami Beach. Mr. Rosero develops the national marketing and communication strategy for HBSG to support the Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands and integrate the Latino perspective into Toyota’s marketing and sales strategies. In addition, he integrates HBSG’s strategy across multiple platforms, including government affairs, partnerships with leading Hispanic organizations, research, and financing.
The 2015 AHAA Annual Conference is delivering a powerful roster of C-Suite leaders and notable trendsetters of the industry: Brian Terkelsen, CEO of MediaVest USA; Kavita Vazirani, CMO, Comcast; Rick Gomez, SVP, Marketing, Target; Peter Hall, SVP, Marketing, Heineken Americas; Jim McNamara, Chairman of Panamax Films and Pantelion Films; Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia, Inc.; Heidi Browning, SVP, Strategic Solutions, Pandora; Deanie Elsner, former CMO of Kraft Foods Group; Emmy®-nominated host of National Geographic Channel’s hit TV series Brain Games and creator of viral short film series Shots of Awe, Jason Silva; Latin GRAMMY® nominated singer/songwriter Leslie Grace; Ravi Rajcoomar, CMO of Six-Speed; Jonathan Stern, VP/head of business development for Fusion TV; Jennifer Lukas-Bourgeois, principal, Ti22 Marketing; and Joe Jarvis, creative copywriter; Vanna Tran, senior manager of Multicultural Growth and Strategy, Nielsen.
For more information, please visit http://ahaa.org and follow all conference chatter on Twitter using the @ahaa handle and hashtag #thinkahaa.
About AHAA: Founded in 1996, AHAA: The Voice of Hispanic Marketing is the national trade organization of all marketing, communications and media firms with trusted Hispanic expertise.
