ChasNote

Toyota has begun a fast recovery, while BP races Goldman Sachs to the cellar. More at the Business Insider.

Full story here.

Adweek on Toyota’s use of social media, including a Digg Dialogg, as a communications platform during the recall crisis:

“Toyota executed a big ad buy around the effort and a Digg microsite that aggregates Toyota stories on Digg in one place. The Lentz interview was a separate, unpaid Digg ‘editorial’ project. ‘The recall situation we faced in this new landscape was one brands had not really seen before. We were in unchartered territory,’ said Doug Frisbie, national social media and marketing integration manager at Toyota Motor Sales, who describes Digg as an ongoing strategic partner. ‘This allowed us to take a much more conversational approach, which for a big brand is difficult to do. Social media allows brands to become more humanized.’”

From Global Post:

“Lentz has been on an old media blitz all week, yapping to everyone from the Today Show, to ABC News, to NPR about how it’s safe to drive a Toyota.

“But the Digg Dialogue is different. In essence, Toyota’s U.S. boss is laying himself out before the site’s 40 million rowdy users, any of whom have a chance to ask him — in no uncertain terms and in a most public forum — WTF?

“As of this writing, Digg’s minions have submitted 1,076 questions. They are, naturally, diverse in tone and subject. But they seem to be falling into several important categories….”

Driving down the Santa Monica Freeway in LA yesterday I got my first look at Toyota’s floral billboard for Prius, which went live (literally) back in August:

“Toyota’s partnership with Greenroad Media of Santa Monica includes the upkeep of nine urban freeway sections, which basically consists of maintaining and repairing corresponding irrigation and landscape in exchange for using the ground as a floral billboard. Caltrans does not allow any product identification in the actual floral designs, but a nearby sign with the Prius name proudly displayed is installed nearby.”

Some press gave Toyota a hard time for making advertising that requires watering. I don’t get that — we all love gardens and flowers and parks, all of which require watering. So as long a flower billboard is pretty like non-advertising gardens, where’s the problem? Plus I’ve got to believe that replacing metal-plastic-and-ink billboards (with flood lights pointed at them) with plant-based billboards would be a net positive for the environment.