We worked with Toyota and the George P. Johnson account team to develop a traveling educational exhibit called “Highway to the Future: Mobile Hybrid Experience.” The $14 million project consisted of two trailers built from scratch, featuring museum-quality displays, which would travel to more than 150 events across the 48 contiguous United States over a total of 18 months, including visits to the corporate campuses of Starbucks, Google, Cisco and others.

The tour allowed consumers an opportunity to test drive Toyota’s hybrid models and to learn about hybrid technology through a number of interactive educational exhibits. Each customer received a custom seed packet (to echo the “green” lifestyle) with a unique barcode they would use to start each “game” in the installation. As they collected points, we collected data, gathering things like demographics, preferences, and dwell time, which linked to the customer permanently when they registered with their name, address and email to get the final, best prize.

The tour attracted better-than-expected attendance, and created strong media buzz throughout its travels. The Hybrid Experience was also designed to minimize its own environmental impact; Toyota planted 50,000 trees in honor of those visiting the experience in conjunction with the National Arbor Day Foundation, to offset the “carbon footprint” of the traveling show.