• by Karl Greenberg , February 1, 2012

Toyota is extending "The Camry Effect" on the Super Bowl this weekend. The automaker is adding a sweepstakes element activated by a smartphone app to an ad that will air on the Super Bowl that extends a Camry-hagiography campaign that launched last fall to promote the 2012 version of the car.

The new chapter of the campaign, called "Connections," involves smartphone app Shazam, and allows people to vie for a chance to win a Camry or gift one to a friend.  

The program features an ad to appear first on YouTube on Feb. 1. Viewers can watch the spot daily with smartphone in hand, and use the Shazam app once daily through Feb. 5 for a chance to win the car. Participants will also be able to "Shazam" the spot when it makes its national broadcast debut on Sunday.  

For digital immigrants, Shazam is an audio-ID smartphone app that can identify songs and artists by "listening" to ambient audio. A spokesperson for Toyota's AOR Saatchi & Saatchi LA, which developed the campaign, explains that starting Thursday, when the "Connections" commercial runs online, people can "Shazam" the ad. When they do, they are automatically entered for a chance to win the car. She says people can do this every day, including when it airs on TV during the Super Bowl, right after the “Toyota Half Time” report.

The online-first Super Bowl TV spot encourages people to enter the giveaway and start a new "Camry Effect" because they can enter for a chance both to win the car and to give it to someone else. People can also enter every day via an online form, per the company, which said it will tell the winner the good news the night of Feb. 5.

The "Camry Effect" is a social media campaign that -- according to Dave Nordstrom, VP of digital marketing at Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. -- is among the most ambitious social media campaigns the company has ever done. Central to it is a community at www.toyota.com/camryeffect that allows Camry owners to talk about how the car has changed their lives, or has held a place of honor in marriages, births, youthful follies, and golden years while "witnessing the collective impact they have had on the nation," says Toyota.

The program, which launched last fall, is just one element of the larger launch campaign, via Saatchi LA, for the 2012 Camry that bore the theme line -- “It’s Ready. Are You?” -- and included six TV spots.