Skeptics Go Electric
Toyota All-Electric Family | Haters Anthem
The Situation:
Toyota built its name on reliability, but in the electric space it had no credibility. In a category where competitors led with features and awards, Toyota’s new all-electric family was invisible to the drivers it needed most: curious, discerning skeptics who weren’t moved by flashy tech and didn’t have Toyota on their radar.
How can Toyota win over the drivers who doubt it most?
The Audience:
Black early adopters who pack as much brain power, passion and energy as possible into every day. Curious, future-oriented pathfinders, they live six months ahead of their social circle and want to be in the fold wherever new ideas take root.
The Tension:
The electric frontier had arrived, but Black drivers never got the invite. EV advertising had overlooked them, and no one had shown a Black expression of EV speed, style and technology.
The Insight:
This audience has said yes to new technology in every part of their lives except their garage. They remain skeptics, but they’re capable of becoming the brand’s most powerful believers once they experience a bolder, more daring side of electric.
Witnessing skeptics become believers silences our own inner skeptic.
The Strategy:
Skeptics Go Electric.
Instead of competing on features and accolades, the campaign set out to get skeptical, EV-curious drivers who didn’t have Toyota on their radar to be unexpectedly wowed by its all-electric family, by dramatizing how even the biggest EV critics are won over by the experience. For Black audiences, that meant inviting them to experience a bold, daring vision of electric life, curated unapologetically from a Black perspective.
The Work:
Haters Anthem.
Directed by Paul Hunter, the :30 hero film turns three EV haters into puppets who comedically sing their doubts, until the C-HR, bZ and bZ Woodland win them over one by one and the haters become believers. A series of :15s and :10s, including Looks for Days, Power, Handle It, First Sight and Frown Breakdown, carried the conversion across broadcast and digital.
The Launch:
From haters to believers.
Haters Anthem anchored Toyota’s fully integrated all-electric family campaign, built with a cohesive multicultural approach and running across linear TV, streaming, digital video, audio, paid social and experiential, with partners including Netflix, Hulu, ESPN, Blavity, Live Nation and The New York Times.