Ford Plans Global 'Roadblock' TV Ad, While Toyota Sets Pan-Digest Buy

Brandweek, Oct 18, 1999 by Jeff Green

With the millennium looming, two major carmakers are thinking in more grandiose ad-buying terms: Ford Motor is planning a global advertising roadblock in early November that will highlight its "one world" approach to the market, while Toyota Motor is spending an estimated $5 million on a global buy in Reader's Digest that will reach 95 million people in 45 countries.

The Ford buy, likely set for the week of Nov. 8 on prime time programming, will debut a two-or three-minute TV spot, reportedly from agency J. Walter Thompson, Detroit, that features people from throughout the world and includes only limited product imagery. The focus is expected to be on the automaker's global breadth, said sources familiar with the program, whose existence emerged at last week's Association of National Advertisers conference in Amelia Island, Fla. While a true ad "roadblock" is not feasible in today's splintered media environment, sources expect Ford will spend millions to saturate major networks on all the continents for the period.

The initial plan was for the program to include all of the Ford divisions, but it's possible the effort has been scaled back to only the Ford division, said another source familiar with some of the planning.

For its part, Toyota Motor will spend an estimated $5 million to distribute a six-page insert in worldwide November issues of Reader's Digest. The corporate overview introduces new Toyota president Fujio Cho, and emphasizes the automaker's friendly stand on environmental issues and its decision to list on the New York Stock Exchange, among other topics.

The insert, in 19 languages, is one of the largest such buys in Reader's Digest, said Thomas Witschi, vp/associate publisher for Reader's Digest International Magazines. The insert discusses Toyota's worldwide production but like the Ford ad does not dwell on specific product lines.

The insert is meant to re-introduce the world to Toyota's corporate vision, with details of a sponsorship of the World of Wildlife TV series, a 26-episode project to be distributed to broadcasters globally. The insert also emphasizes Toyota's technological accomplishments and signals its shift to sophisticated information technology systems to track buyers and satisfy consumer demand.

The Japanese-initiated program dovetails with a U.S. corporate program (Brandweek, Sept. 6) that initially demonstrated Toyota's commitment to the U.S. but has expanded to show its global reach.

The project was developed jointly by Toyota's corporate office and the Reader's Digest office in Tokyo.