ED’S NOTE: The commentary here reflects my interest in advertising as a marketing student. The opinions expressed here are mine and in no way reflect the opinions of my employers.

Our heroine from the Toyota Venza commercial has been recently spotted on the Yahoo! portal in an interactive ad that encourages viewers to “learn stuff.” An ad is just an ad, some might argue, but this interactive ad is engaging the viewer with its appealing character (“Click on something.”) and unassuming links: “See the commercial on YouTube” and “Learn more at Toyota.com.”

So what’s the big deal? At the time of this writing, this YouTube video (posted July 6) had 55,198 views, 300 likes and 23 dislikes. On the official Toyota channel, with lovely Venza display ad (natch!), the video had 8,129 views, including 55 likes and five dislikes.

Although the official Toyota channel’s numbers aren’t that impressive, collectively the video posts have sparked quite a bit of consumer engagement – which is what a marketer wants when investing in Internet advertising. And although the viewing audience was introduced to the Venza girl (played by Allyn Rachel) through old-fashioned television advertising, we’re getting to know her better here on the innerwebs thanks to YouTube, Twitter, this blog and other Web 2.0 outlets.
 

 

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