How Toyota delivered tens of millions in incremental revenue

Toyota was facing a problem. The volume of cars the company was servicing had fallen since 2017 and flatlined for a decade prior. While consumers valued the expertise of a Toyota service, the perceived expense saw them opting for cheaper alternatives.

To get drivers back on board, the car marque joined forces with The&Partnership on ‘Toyota Relax’, a new proposition offering customers with a car up to 10-years old an extra 12-month warranty at no additional cost with every service.

Quantitative research found consumers perceived the cost of a 12-month Toyota warranty to be almost twice as high as the price of a Toyota service, meaning a combined offer presented a better value proposition.

However, customers worried Toyota Relax was “too good to be true”, concerned they may be excluded due to the T&Cs.

In response, the brand created ‘Warranties for all’, a campaign uniting a spectrum of Toyota owners to demonstrate the servicing proposition was open to everyone. The Toyota Relax concept was introduced to customers via CRM, while ‘unknown customers’ were targeted via video-on-demand, social media, display and radio.

Awareness of Toyota Relax hit 39%, while click-through-rates from service reminder emails rose by 48%.

Toyota saw an overall increase of 10.3% in the number of cars seen for a service, an increase of more than 48,000 vehicles. Furthermore, the brand outperformed the category by more than 13.5 percentage points and has seen a 51.7% year on year average monthly uplift in online service bookings.

Crucially, Toyota Relax generated tens of millions in incremental service and parts revenue, helping the brand scoop the 2022 Marketing Week Award for Automotive.