Toyota Iq: "IQ FONT" Design & Branding by Happiness-brussels

Category: Typography
Advertiser: TOYOTA
Product/Service: IQ
Agency: HAPPINESS BRUSSELS
Date of First Appearance: Jul 30 2009 12:00AM
Entrant Company: HAPPINESS BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
Entry URL: http://kuotzu-i.net/iqfont/
Creative Management: Karen Corrigan/Gregory Titeca (HAPPINESS BRUSSELS)
Creative Director: Gregory Titeca (HAPPINESS BRUSSELS)
Account Director: Pascal Kemajou (HAPPINESS BRUSSELS)
Creative: Tom Galle (HAPPINESS BRUSSELS)
Creative: Ramin Afshar (HAPPINESS BRUSSELS)
Head of Art: Cecilia Azcarate Isturiz (HAPPINESS BRUSSELS)
Software Developer: Zachary Lieberman
Media placement: Viral video - Vimeo - 20 June 2009
Media placement: Website - iqfont.com - 20 June 2009
Media placement: Interactive Tool - iqfont.com - 20 June 2009
Media placement: Viral - Blogs, Social Media, Newspapers, Magazines, Online Tv Shows - 20 June 2009

Describe the challenges and key objectives

Toyota launches the new iQ, a compact car that combines sleek design and cutting edge technology. Our briefing was to communicate the unique agility and perfect control of the iQ in a relevant way to a target group of 18-35 year old urban people. We want to reach the communities that fit the iQ’s core values: design, technology and automotive. We need a concept that can merge these three strong online communities.

Describe the brief from the client
How can we jump out of the mass? How can we be different from our competitors, and be relevant and attractive to our target group? How can we create something that's in our target group’s world, and that lasts longer than a normal ad?

Describe how you arrived at the final design
The making of video was posted on Vimeo, with a direct link to download the iQ font for free on the Toyota website, where people were also invited to book a test drive. We spread the making of in 3 phases. At first, in an online PR strategy, we targeted highly influential and contextual environments, in automotive, design, and technology. Then we activated a broader environment. And finally the viral spread took place.

Give some indication of how successful the outcome was in the market
To demonstrate its incredible agility, the new Toyota iQ is the first car in the world ever to create an entire font from A to Z. To make this project happen, we collaborated with: - Zach Lieberman, pioneer in interactive art. Color tracking software developer. - Pierre and Damien, from Pleaseletmedesign, a type and graphic design studio. Font designers. - Professional pilot Stef van Campenhoudt, European champion of GT3 racing. Font driver. All together, they created the iQ Font. The making of video was posted as a viral film on Vimeo, and got featured on thousands of influential design, technology and automotive blogs worldwide. The video was posted on over 6000 blogs worldwide. The stunt also got a huge amount of offline media attention in leading design and technology magazines all over the world. It was even broadcasted at the Typophile festival in New York, and at ‘Centre Pompidou’, the museum for modern art at Paris. The iQ Font making of video got more than 600 000 unique clicks and reached over 2 million page views on blogs and online magazines. The iQ Font got downloaded over 24 000 times from the Toyota website. All this with 0 euro media budget