Toyota Dips Its Toe Into Online Marketing

Implications: Auto marketing executives have a "prove-it" attitude toward online and mobile marketing. Toyota takes a big step with YouTube.

Analysis: Auto marketing executives know they will be advertising more on video Web sites such as YouTube, as well as using cell phones and other mobile devices in coming months. Toyota's campaign with YouTube is an attempt to find out what the future may hold for the medium.

Lets take a look at another new sector for auto advertisers, cell phones and other mobile devices.

Most auto execs have a "prove it" attitude toward the medium, as mobile-service providers work through issues such as image enhancement and platform standardization. Gregg Benkendorfer, Toyota's national manager of media and digital says "The biggest issue with mobile is we have to do everything different for each carrier. Until they sort that out, I don't think you're going to see tremendous growth."

But carmakers clearly are into mobile in a significant way nonetheless, encouraged in part by the booming popularity of Apple's iPhone and the richness of its interface.

From Ford's mobile ads for its Sync voice-activated features to a Mercedes Benz mobile campaign that directed consumers to a test-drive event for its C-Class sedans, at least the industry is aggressively experimenting with advertising even as the mobile medium is constructing itself.

Despite such campaigns, however, automakers interest in mobile advertising remains largely experimental. The technology and creative execution remain too raw, and the real audience too undefined, for the industry to treat the mobile milieu as much more than an important marketing laboratory at the moment.

The Mobile Marketing Association is working with automakers to mitigate the problem of figuring out how to differentiate content between mobile and other advertising media that have similarities, including TV or Internet spots.

Another significant drawback to mobile advertising is that cellphone usage in the U.S. hasn't caught up with penetration in Asia and Europe. GM in fact is testing more mobile advertising outside the U.S. than in this country.