NEW YORK, Oct. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Already turning heads with its contemporary style and versatility, Toyota's RAV4 is now putting a whole new twist on what's next with an engaging social media extension of its "RAV4: Ready 4 What's Next" interactive marketing campaign targeting Hispanic consumers. The effort features a virtual Rubik's Cube^® that consumers can play online to create their own sharable personalized photo souvenir at www.RAV4cube.com.

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"We are excited to provide consumers with this fun and creative extension of the Toyota RAV4 brand," said David Chung, National Manager of Targeted Advertising and Strategy for Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. "The social media app has been very popular and created a deep level of engagement with people, who have made and shared thousands of customized Rubik's Cubes with their networks." 

The RAV4 Rubik's Cube^® is optimized for use on mobile and tablet devices running Android or iOS -- those used most frequently for social networking. The game provides an immersive experience for users by replicating the kinesthetic hand-eye movements used when playing a physical Rubik's Cube^®.Intuitive gestures allow the user to rotate rows and columns, as well as to rotate the cube three-dimensionally in space to see all sides.

"The app takes advantage of Facebook's newly improved rich media News Feed functionality that allows users to experience gameplay directly in-feed, without the need to visit a separate page," said Andy Nelson, Director of Social Media / Content Production of Conill, Toyota's Hispanic marketing partner. "Developed primarily in HTML5--with a Flash fallback--the game is also playable on most desktops and can be accessed directly through the native Facebook application."

The RAV4 Rubik's Cube^® is a part of an interactive and experiential marketing campaign launched earlier this year at select locations in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. During live events, such as baseball games, thousands of visitors created their own personalized, physical Rubik's Cube^® featuring their photos set against the scenic backdrop of the venue.

To date, the interactive portion of the campaign has resulted in:

• One in three virtual Rubik's Cube^® creations have been shared on Facebook and/or Twitter
• Geo-targeted social media strategy and onsite events increased the average app visits per day by 98% and average time spent on the app by 58%
• 62% of visitors shared their virtual Rubik's Cube^® with friends and family online via interactive kiosks during live events
• Average daily fans of Toyota Latino Facebook page grew by 107% during the campaign (compared to average daily fans during a similar time frame before the campaign launch)

About ToyotaToyota, the world's top automaker and creator of the Prius, is committed to building vehicles for the way people live through our Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands.  Over the past 50 years, we've built more than 25 million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants and directly employ nearly 40,000 people.  Our 1,800 North American dealerships sold more than 2.3 million cars and trucks in 2012 – and about 80% of all Toyotas sold over the past 20 years are still on the road today.  (NYSE: TM)  For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.  

Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. (TMS), the sales, marketing, distribution and customer service arm of Toyota, Lexus and Scion, is based in Torrance, CA.

SOURCE Toyota

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