Scion of the Future

These two spots feature the customization available for the Scion tC and the Scion xB. The spot for the tC shows it racing around an indoor course that seems both toy-like and futuristic. For the xB, the car is revealed without tires underneath a subway. Both cars dynamically metamorphise as they show the options available. The voiceover says that both cars are ready for personalization at Scion.com with over 30 accessories.

What Works:
This spot is as interesting for the vision it shows us of the future as for the brand it promotes. It is effective on both levels. The look and feel of the commercial will be unfriendly to people not in the brand community - if you do not love the idea of taking an old Civic that’s worth $8,000 and putting $30,000 of accessories into it, then this commercial may not make sense to you. On the other hand, for the car customizer it looks as if Scion has suddenly made things much easier and more interesting.

Her is what works in this spot:

1. Positioning - Toyota is really borrowing the original Saturn brand positioning “A different kind of car. A different kind of company,” and radically altering its DNA. Scion is positioned not just to the world of car tuners but the to future of car manufacturing that they can see and understand - where every car coming off an assembly line will be unique and customized to its owner.
2. Brand Recognition - This is a ‘product as hero’ spot so the Scions take center stage for the entire duration of each advertisment. The advantage is that because of their distinct styling, the brand imprint is strong. It would be hard to think about these commercials and not remember that they’re for Scion if you remember anything at all.
3. Environment - Toyota does a good job of using the environment of the spot to reinforce the brand positioning. Each Scion appears in a fantasy location. In the tC spot we find ourselves on a track so fantastic that it might just be a toy racecar track turned into a real life circuit. The xB is a discarded treasure waiting to be discovered under a subway line. The morphing video effects also support this environment by making the car seem like the dream toy of every 15 year old boy. The music, lighting and shot selection all work very hard to reinforce the environment created by these commercials.

This vision is compelling because it offers the ultimate brand promise - a product made just for you, for what you need and what will make you happy.

What Doesn’t:
Customization can be a one-trick pony if Scion doesn’t keep ahead of rivals. This means more options easier to design and quicker to deliver at a fair price. Because no manufacturer selling to this crowd of extremely high-spending car buyers can fail to see the opportunity presented for add-on sales here. After you receive your customized car, Scion can keep selling you options and take back even more revenue from aftermarket shops.

By making the Scion as much a product of the purchaser’s imagination as the designer’s, Scion has given control to its users in a good way. But if that basic promise (my car, my way) stops being met, or if the reality of designing a car on the Internet and buying it is more difficult than it appears, Scion will have dug its own customized grave.