An index finger for Toyota
Automobil Wirz is bringing Walter Eggenberger back to television for Toyota. There he plays his old role again.
Automobil Wirz is bringing Walter Eggenberger back to television for Toyota. There he plays his old role again.
Local celebrities advertising Japanese cars in Switzerland is a tradition. The commercials with Bernhard Russi for Subaru or Walter Roderer for Mitsubishi are legendary. However, the idea of confidence-inspiring testimonials has now reached a new dimension with Walter Eggenberger's commercials for Toyota: the films with the former presenter of "10 vor 10" are styled in a confusingly similar way to the news magazine and are shown on Swiss television as closely as possible to the original model for the commercials. According to the briefing, Wirz Werbung had to communicate the fact that breakdown statistics, studies on customer satisfaction and reports in the trade press about innovations at Toyota show that this brand can rightly adorn itself with the statement: "Toyota builds the best cars in the world." This realization gave rise to a broad-based national campaign and the idea that there is no more suitable broadcasting medium for so many facts than a news program. And who better to do this than Walter Eggenberger, one of the first people to appear on "10 to 10" and a convinced Toyota driver himself? As an encore, it is of course the intention that viewers, and especially female viewers, will be amazed when they hear the voice of "sexy Walti" (as Blick called him in the 1980s) again.
Information instead of advertising slogans
For Wirz Werbung, the news man is the ideal communicator of the facts surrounding this true Toyota success story. "In keeping with this, the text has also been deliberately designed to be non-promotional and fits in with the environment of the news format," explains CD Hanspeter Schweizer.
The long spot is stylistically designed in exactly the same way as "10 to 10". Eggenberger introduces the topic by presenting a report according to which "the most satisfied drivers in Germany" drive a Toyota. Eggenberger continues: "This was the result of an independent survey of 1,6800 German drivers." According to the same
Muster is a report on statistics from the Touring Club of Switzerland. The club examined the frequency of breakdowns. The publication showed that Toyota was honored four times in the places with the highest reliability. "What's in it for Toyota drivers?" asks Eggenberger. The effective advertising answer in the commercial is: low maintenance costs and a guaranteed high resale value.
Just like the real "10 to 10", the spot alternates between several interim moderations and film clips. As with a news program, the content is made credible using journalistic methods. For example, Eggenberger asks: "How European is Toyota?" - The answer is: "According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Toyota invested 4.5 billion euros in Europe last year, creating 56,000 jobs." A report in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung is quoted on the subject of "exhaust emissions". On the subject of "exemplary ecology", the news persiflage refers to real reports in the business and trade press.
In the French-speaking part of Switzerland, the commercials were also realized according to the same principle with a similarly popular former news presenter and in Ticino with a former female presenter.
"10 vor 10" reacts promptly The unconventional idea even provoked a journalistic contribution on the real "10 vor 10". With little expertise, but a lot of malice for former colleague Walti, an attempt was made to produce a report on celebrities in advertising. Despite the lack of professional analysis on the actually interesting topic, the advertisers were delighted with the report. The report on "10 to 10" was 4 minutes and 47 seconds long. Three minutes of this were devoted to Toyota. A 60-second spot on the news magazine costs 27,000 francs. "If we now extrapolate that, we get an additional advertising value of 81,000 francs," calculated consultant Roman Jud at Wirz Werbung.
The television campaign, which consists of a three-minute long spot and several shorter spots, is flanked by advertisements that use a whole series of examples to impressively demonstrate Toyota's great expertise in car manufacturing: Quality, technology, ecology, innovation and corporate management.
Facts, facts, facts: Former "10 to 10" man Walter Eggenberger doesn't do PR slogans.
Local celebrities advertising Japanese cars in Switzerland is a tradition. The commercials with Bernhard Russi for Subaru or Walter Roderer for Mitsubishi are legendary. However, the idea of confidence-inspiring testimonials has now reached a new dimension with Walter Eggenberger's commercials for Toyota: the films with the former presenter of "10 vor 10" are styled in a confusingly similar way to the news magazine and are shown on Swiss television as closely as possible to the original model for the commercials. According to the briefing, Wirz Werbung had to communicate the fact that breakdown statistics, studies on customer satisfaction and reports in the trade press about innovations at Toyota show that this brand can rightly adorn itself with the statement: "Toyota builds the best cars in the world." This realization gave rise to a broad-based national campaign and the idea that there is no more suitable broadcasting medium for so many facts than a news program. And who better to do this than Walter Eggenberger, one of the first people to appear on "10 to 10" and a convinced Toyota driver himself? As an encore, it is of course the intention that viewers, and especially female viewers, will be amazed when they hear the voice of "sexy Walti" (as Blick called him in the 1980s) again.
Information instead of advertising slogans
For Wirz Werbung, the news man is the ideal communicator of the facts surrounding this true Toyota success story. "In keeping with this, the text has also been deliberately designed to be non-promotional and fits in with the environment of the news format," explains CD Hanspeter Schweizer.
The long spot is stylistically designed in exactly the same way as "10 to 10". Eggenberger introduces the topic by presenting a report according to which "the most satisfied drivers in Germany" drive a Toyota. Eggenberger continues: "This was the result of an independent survey of 1,6800 German drivers." According to the same
Muster is a report on statistics from the Touring Club of Switzerland. The club examined the frequency of breakdowns. The publication showed that Toyota was honored four times in the places with the highest reliability. "What's in it for Toyota drivers?" asks Eggenberger. The effective advertising answer in the commercial is: low maintenance costs and a guaranteed high resale value.
Just like the real "10 to 10", the spot alternates between several interim moderations and film clips. As with a news program, the content is made credible using journalistic methods. For example, Eggenberger asks: "How European is Toyota?" - The answer is: "According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Toyota invested 4.5 billion euros in Europe last year, creating 56,000 jobs." A report in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung is quoted on the subject of "exhaust emissions". On the subject of "exemplary ecology", the news persiflage refers to real reports in the business and trade press.
In the French-speaking part of Switzerland, the commercials were also realized according to the same principle with a similarly popular former news presenter and in Ticino with a former female presenter.
"10 vor 10" reacts promptly The unconventional idea even provoked a journalistic contribution on the real "10 vor 10". With little expertise, but a lot of malice for former colleague Walti, an attempt was made to produce a report on celebrities in advertising. Despite the lack of professional analysis on the actually interesting topic, the advertisers were delighted with the report. The report on "10 to 10" was 4 minutes and 47 seconds long. Three minutes of this were devoted to Toyota. A 60-second spot on the news magazine costs 27,000 francs. "If we now extrapolate that, we get an additional advertising value of 81,000 francs," calculated consultant Roman Jud at Wirz Werbung.
The television campaign, which consists of a three-minute long spot and several shorter spots, is flanked by advertisements that use a whole series of examples to impressively demonstrate Toyota's great expertise in car manufacturing: Quality, technology, ecology, innovation and corporate management.
Facts, facts, facts: Former "10 to 10" man Walter Eggenberger doesn't do PR slogans.
Andreas Panzeri
