Toyota Future

Committed to become a greener brand by 2010, Toyota is looking for ways to meet the growing needs of society in ways that are less harmful to the Earth.
Their dedication to the sustainability extends from the creation and improvement of automotive technologies "eco-friendly." to new forms of communication used to disseminate its green essence.

A new communication tool is the Toyota - Future.com: an interactive portal that aggregates a range of content in the field of sustainability. Videos, presentations, documentaries and many other interactions are available at the Toyota-Future.com.

A half and full-banner were placed in the home wired.com, one of the leading online partner of the project.

Mitsubishi: to tie with Peugeot on electric cars

TOKYO, March 2 (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Motors Corp said on Monday it will work with PSA Peugeot-Citroen on its new electric car, the i MiEV, aiming to sell the car in Europe from the end of 2010 or early 2011.

Peugeot will sell the car under its own brand, the company said in a statement. (Reporting by Sachi Izumi)

Toyota slows production

Toyota, the world's biggest auto maker, is forecasting that its global production output will fall by 12% in the next fiscal year, the lowest level in seven years, having previously predicted it will post its first net loss in 59 years in March. Alongside cutting its scheduled production totals from 7.1 million this year to 6.2 million for the year starting in April, the company predicts it will post an operating loss for the March year-end period.It is also said to have requested $2 billion (£1.4bn; €1.6bn) in loans from the government-supported Japan Bank for International Co-operation to provide funding for its corporate finance arm, Toyota Financial Services. The main issue motivating the move is thought to be the difficulties motor companies face in securing credit in the US, where total auto sales declined by over a third in January, having fallen by a similar level in Japan, and just over a quarter in Europe.

Daily Telegraph 'media-first' unveiled Citroen's new brand identity

Citroën marked its 90th birthday by unveiling a new corporate identity in the Daily Telegraph, promoted by an interactive advertising campaign created by readers.

In an attempt to convey the French car giant's foundations in "style, innovation and technology", the campaign required readers to fold specific pages of the quality newspaper to create Citroën's message and reveal its strapline ‘Creative Technology'

The print marketing campaign, exclusive to The Daily Telegraph, was designed by Omnicom's OMD, and was accompanied by ads in TV and full-page traditional colour ads in every national and Sunday newspaper.

In addition to what is being touted as a "media first" within The Daily Telegraph, there was corresponding digital ads on Telegraph.co.uk. Users of the website were able to click on a branded page peel, which rolls back to expose an origami-like fold-up of the web pages themselves and the new Citroën brand identity.

Ian Hughes, marketing director of Citroën UK, called the Telegraph execution "evidence of our reinvention" that allows the company to demonstrate "creative technologie".


Citroen Daily Telegraph Creative Technology
envoyé par Automotives

The smallest advergame ever

German agency Jung von Matt has joined forces with French web developer Mathieu 'P01' HENRI to produce the smallest advergame ever. It sits in 16*16 pixels or, better, in a favicon. The progject has been conceived to promote a very small car: the Smart fortwo.

As you can see from the video, banners have been placed on automotive sites to invite people to play. The idea is fun and definitely very creative.

Trendwatching: Eco-Bounty

While financial woes may hold back some green initiatives, the future has never looked greener. Mainly because creating a more sustainable economy is not an option, but a necessity. And we all know that necessity is the mother of invention. Which is why this month, amidst crumbling banks, G20 meetings and stimulus plans, Ttrendwatching highlights 12 eco sub-trends that any marketer or entrepreneur can act on today.

Click HERE for the full report

Tata Sets Minicar for March

MUMBAI -- Tata Motors Ltd. has set March 23 as the launch date for its 100,000-rupee ($2,005) minicar, about three months behind initial schedule after the auto maker had to relocate its factory late last year.
Bookings for the Nano, the world's cheapest passenger car, will begin in the second week of April, India's top-selling auto maker said. The booking process and other details will be announced at the time of launch, it added.
Tata Motors had originally planned to launch the Nano in the fourth quarter of 2008. But it had to relocate its factory in the eastern state of West Bengal in October following violent protests from a political party and farmer groups over the farmland taken over for the plant.
The auto maker -- which had invested about 15 billion rupees for the factory at Singur in West Bengal -- subsequently said it will invest about 20 billion rupees in a factory to produce the Nano in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
The new factory will have an initial capacity to produce 250,000 cars per year, which can be doubled at a later stage, Tata had said. However, the status of the new factory in Gujarat isn't currently known.