Toyota South Africa Motors has announced that, following a 'short-paws' from production, the car manufacturer has returned to full production. Together with long-term partner FCB Joburg, it has collaborated to bring Buddy out of retirement in its latest campaign.
Toyota South Africa's local manufacturing plant was one of the many businesses that were impacted by the floods that hit KwaZulu-Natal in April.
According to Toyota, the plant had to stop producing vehicles. The damage to the infrastructure and machinery was described as "the worst disaster ever seen by the Toyota Japan Disaster Relief team."
Although production of locally built models such as the Toyota Hilux, Fortuner, HiAce and Corolla Cross stopped, Toyota South Africa says that they continued to supply completely built-up) imported cars to the public.
"While the clean-up and rebuilding began, we tasked FCB Joburg to create a campaign to reassure our customers that Toyota South Africa is committed to getting their favourite cars back on the road," says Tasneem Lorgat, senior marketing manager at Toyota South Africa.
"We decided to tackle this messaging in a two-phased approach," says Tian van den Heever, ECD at FCB Joburg. "Phase one launched in June and shared a reassuring supportive message, while phase two coincides with the reopening of Toyota South Africa's prospection plant and has a very clear message of 'We're back'."
"Just like our iconic vehicles built in Durban, we thought that Buddy the Boxer was the perfect icon to share this message, and we could not be more excited to bring Buddy back a whole 13 years after his initial Toyota debut," adds Lorgat.
"Unlike past Buddy renditions, newer state-of-the-art animation technology — as well as on-set editing — allowed for the development of his iconic smile and humour to be more natural; well, as natural as a talking dog can be," says van den Heever.
The duo conclude that Buddy's character and charm, coupled with the equally uplifting PJ Powers Jabulani track, were perfectly suited to bring back the nostalgia of the past and the positive outlook for the future. This ultimately reminds South Africa why they have always loved Toyota through a cheeky and pun-filled ad.
For more information, visit www.fcb.co.za. You can also follow FCB Joburg on Facebook or on Twitter.