Toyota and Fox Partner for Mobisodes
The new Fox television series Prison Break is now serving as the centerpiece for an integrated marketing partnership that coincides with the launch of Toyota’s new Yaris liftback and sedan.
Toyota is the sponsor of Fox’s mobisodes—short episodes of programming designed for mobile phones—called Prison Break: Proof of Innocence, which became available yesterday for free to Sprint customers on Fox’s Channel 20 on SprintTV.
At the start of each of the 26 scheduled episodes, a 10-second marketing message for Toyota airs, followed by a two-minute episode that parallels the current Prison Break storyline. Toyota vehicles, including the Yaris liftback and sedan, are prominently featured in each mobisode, which will be released three to four times per week.
“We’re utilizing this emerging entertainment medium as a way to provide fans of Prison Break with details about the show, courtesy of Yaris,” said Jim Farley, VP-marketing Toyota in a statement. “Our partnership with Fox provides an exclusive portal to showcase Yaris to consumers in a fun way where they can discover more about the car on their own time.”
The marketing partnership also lets Fox Interactive Media create a Toyota-branded Prison Break microsite within Fox.com, offering unique content tied to the series. Plans call for a Prison Break/Toyota Sweepstakes. Additionally, the site will contain exclusive behind-the-scenes video streams.
Fox is providing Toyota with category exclusivity for auto advertising during several upcoming Prison Break broadcasts, the first which aired on Monday. The network will also drive viewers to both the Toyota-branded microsite and the mobisodes with co-branded advertising in daily and weekly national publications.
To celebrate the partnership, Fox and Toyota join forces on April 27 in Los Angeles at the 20th Century Fox lot for a publicity event featuring the stars of Prison Break and the Yaris. The Yaris will be featured throughout the night, with some portions of the evening devoted to raising money for Toyota charities.
Toyota also sponsored the FX cable channel’s Prison Break marathon March 19.
Advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, Los Angeles, produced the 10-second marketing messages for Toyota.
