PEOPLE ARE THE DESTINATION

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Client: Toyota
AD: 🙋‍♀️
CW: Alexis Johnson
Jr. Team: Krystal Rountree, Serena Latimer
Designer: Michelle Kim
CD: Annie Elliott
Photographer: Chris De Lorenzo

OVERVIEW

This project was part of the “People Are the Destination” campaign.
Our target audience was a community called Social Ringleaders, these are people-people who are usually the initiators and catalysts of social interactions. For them, and in this campaign, cars are taking the role of enablers of social interactions; they aren’t only vehicles to move in space, but they carry people’s time together, with their friends, with their kids, and with their elderly.

The Challenge

We were tasked with developing the concept and visual approach for the campaign’s social and digital channels. The challenge was translating the spots’ strong focus on real human connection into static digital assets. It was essential for the visuals to capture authentic moments of human connection while still showcasing the vehicles.

The Solution + VISUAL CONCEPT

The visual direction of the photo album resonates with the target audience, the Social Ringleaders, who love documenting every moment together, every laugh, and every memory. It also allows us to use multiple images together and create mini-stories of human connection for most of the deliverables.

My Role

I art-directed the entire project, including collaborating to ideate the visual concept, leading the asset design, creating the photography shot list, and providing on-set art direction.

VISUAL GUIDELINES

The creative direction is heartfelt, with a photorealistic and vintage style to reach a nostalgic tone. The details, like the paper tape and some doodles, make it feel personal. To tie the design to the commercials, I turned the red Pin in the spots’ end card into a sticker, creating an element of continuity.

THE TYPOGRAPHY:
Toyota guidelines are strict about the official font usage, but I was able to bring a human touch, adding a hand-written/marker typography style to the campaign tagline and some headlines.

THE PHOTOGRAPHY:
The photography captures authentic moments of human connection while incorporating the car in every shot, reminding the audience of Toyota’s role in bringing people together. The shot list included photos where the car was in the background, appearing as the literal vehicle or connection, and with the car as the hero.

PHOTOGRAphY SHOOT

The photography was captured during a week-long shadow shoot running parallel to the video production, with limited windows between scene changes to access talent and vehicles. To bypass the challenge, I developed a comprehensive shot list that prioritized efficiency without sacrificing the creative vision. Each set of talent was photographed in a variety of shots, where the car was in the background, appearing as the literal vehicle or connection, and with the car as the hero.