Among the biggest events of the year is the Super Bowl. While we may not know all about the NFL teams that will be taking part in this year’s stage, the list for automotive ‘participants’ keeps growing.
Latest to confirm its presence for the event is Japanese automaker Toyota. The event will take place in February in Miami.
The Super Bowl LIV has always been a sales and marketing dream event as a large audience watches it. It forms one of the best platforms to advertise, and Toyota plans to make the best out of it.
2020 Toyota Highlander Ad Spot in the Big Game
In a statement by VP Marketing North America, "We're excited to feature the all-new 2020 Highlander in our spot in the Big Game."
Exactly a week before last year’s Christmas, the global automaker confirmed that it would be among the companies planning to advertise in the event. Toyota confirmed that it had secured a 60-second spot during the event. Toyota will feature its all-new three-row SUV-Toyota Highlander (marketed as the Toyota Kluger in Australia) in this spot.
It will mark the start of their redesigned and upsized Highlander campaign this year. The Highlander journey will go on till July this year. Toyota’s presence in this year’s Super Bowl LIV match will be their third consecutive appearance in the event. The last time the automaker bowed out of the event was back in 2017, but that was after a straight five-year run of advertising in the Super Bowl.
The world's largest car company has a long history of using the event to advertise its products. In 2012 and 2015, Toyota plugged the Toyota Camry. It is worth noting that for the last 17 years, the Toyota Camry has been America’s best-selling sedan passenger car. Last year, Toyota ran two separate ads during the event. One was the 2019 Toyota RAV4, and the other was the return of the Supra.
This year’s ad is credited to Toyota’s creative agency-of-record Saatchi & Saatchi. Zenith Media will handle the TV and Outdoor media arrangements. Toyota revealed only a few details, but that may be enough for us to know what to expect.
In a written statement, Toyota North America's Group Vice President for Marketing said that the Highlander is currently the market's best-selling model in the midsize SUV segment. He added that there's no better strategic kick-off point to campaign for the 2020 Highlander than during the most-watched event of the year.
Sales to Start in February
The Highlander model made its debut back in 2001 and has been since upgraded over the years. The 2020 model started rolling out to dealers last year, mid-December. The Highlander Hybrid model is expected to begin hitting dealers in February.
In the first 11 months in 2019, Toyota sold 218,989 units of the midsize SUV as per the Automotive News Data Centre. However, the sales had dropped down 1.1% compared to the unit sales in 2018 in the same period. It is not all bad, though. The Toyota Highlander was the best-selling SUV in the US over the first three quarters in 2019.
Hyundai, Kia, Audi, Porsche to Join the Big Game
Toyota has now joined four other automakers already lined up to make a Super Bowl appearance. Last year, five automakers made an appearance in the event running six ads.
South Korean automaker Hyundai, as well as Kia, have already confirmed their spot. The other two auto brands are German Volkswagen-owned Audi and Porsche. This year’s event marks Porsche’s return to the platform since 1997.
As of the moment, the notable absentee from the list is Mercedes Benz. Although the German automaker made an appearance in last year’s Super Bowl, it doesn’t appear to be interested in running an ad this year.
Mercedes Benz is joined in the list by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Fiat has always been a regular attendee, but there’s no confirmation yet as to its appearance this year.
More to Come from Toyota
With this year making it three straight appearances (2018, 2019, and 2020) by Toyota at the Super Bowl event, we may conclude that this is a pattern. Accordingly, we can expect something new and better from Toyota in the next Super Bowl Event.
Toyota has also revealed that, for the coming three years, it would debut a product or launch a redesigned one every month or so. It tells us one thing. Between this Super Bowl and the next, there's much more to look forward to from Toyota. So stay tuned - keep yourself updated by checking our blog section regularly for the latest in the automotive industry.
Author
Sam O.