Toyota Teams up with Aniboom Winner for ‘Auto-Biography’ Campaign

Press Release from Saatchi & Saatchi

Based on the premise that every Toyota owner has an anecdote about why they love their car, Mike McKay, Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles, led the team who came up with ‘Auto-Biography’, a Facebook community where Toyota drivers can share their stories.  In an effort to connect with Toyota owners, ‘Auto-Biography’ enables people to upload videos and post photographs of experiences associated with their vehicle.  Using real Toyota owners as its inspiration, the campaign has amassed a range of intriguing tales, from the everyday to the fantastical.  To visit the Auto-Biography community, go to http://www.facebook.com/toyota.  In all 10,589 Toyota owners’ stories were submitted through Facebook, and the Toyota USA page where the shorts are hosted has more than 292,345 members.

Seven stories were selected to be translated into animated short films by leading contemporary Animators.  Yannick Puig, winner of the Aniboom and Saatchi & Saatchi competition to find young animation talent, part of the 2010 New Directors’ Showcase at Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, was awarded the task of creating one of the seven animated shorts.  Yannick’s enchanting animation ‘I Lived on the Moon’ won him the coveted prize of working on a commission at an agency in the Saatchi & Saatchi Global Network.  Tom Eslinger, Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide Creative Director Digital, commented: "The ambition for NDS is to find new directors and put them to work and with Yann we've got a great match with Toyota and our office in Los Angeles. The quality is very high and sets a bar for any other competition we run in the future."

Yannick was given only 6 weeks to create a short film inspired by the voice of Toyota Corolla driver Donna Replogle.  The resulting video showcases Yannick’s unique style and creativity, and creates a surreal universe where Donna and her husband Steve, climb a 1200 ft mountain in all weather to deliver pizza and newspapers, meeting characters such as a hunting-cap wearing Reindeer along the way. 

Yannick’s film, with music by Polly Hall and Andrew Barkan, can be viewed on Toyota’s official YouTube channel: "In 2010 we opened up the New Directors’ Showcase for the first time to a competition to find a new director and we partnered with aniboom.com, where we not only found some contenders for the Showcase, but were also impressed by the quality of work from the competitions they ran for Radiohead and Marvel Comics.  Our Worldwide Creative Board, as well as getting popular input from the Aniboom audience, got us a fantastic shortlist as well as Yann's moving digital film." Tom Eslinger, Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide Creative Director Digital

“The project was very interesting because the creative direction gave me "carte blanche" in many fields.  They gave me the interview voice of Donna (the main character of the animation), and 6 weeks to finish the video, so it was very quick. During the first brief we decided the main story, the aesthetic, and some details that have to be into the animation. And then 3 days to design characters, car, backgrounds, and some other things like trees.  It was a real pleasure to work on this, because people were very reactive, and I like this quick method of work.  Animation is a very slow technique.  If you don't make it quick, you can lose spontaneity in your work.  I think the resulting animation is original, and different.  There is a lot of detail, and I hope people will want to see it more than one time.” Yannick Puig

Aniboom’s president and CEO, Uri Shinar, commented:  “Aniboom was honoured to collaborate with Saatchi & Saatchi to discover Yannick Puig via the Aniboom and Saatchi & Saatchi Nothing is Impossible Challenge.  Aniboom thrives on discovering and promoting great talents in the animation world, and we’re certain that Yannick Puig did an incredible job on the Toyota campaign, and will produce more amazing animation in the future.”

Creative Credits