Interactive examples

Toyota launches user-submitted multimedia interface “Beyond Cars”

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Less than a year after Toyota wowed the interactive community with their “Why Not? Innovation Experience” site, they have launched “Beyond Cars,” a user-submitted interactive portal allowing their audience to discuss a “better tomorrow.” Their site provides a truly engaging experience as users move around a visually stimulating interface to read, watch, and view other people’s thoughts about our future.

Their submission system is extremely easy and user-friendly. They have integrated Facebook Connect as a second option to submitting user information from scratch, which helps speed up the process. Users can then voice their opinion with an image-and-text, video-and-text, or text-only message. Videos can be uploaded from a user’s computer, or recorded and broadcasted live with a user’s webcam. Photos can be uploaded from a user’s computer, Facebook profile, or Flickr gallery. Even more, if users want a more generic picture, they can choose from “Toyota’s Gallery,” where the developers conveniently provided 12 scenery photos for others to use.

Toyota’s latest advertising campaign also includes TV commercials, print campaigns, and banner advertisements in a variety of popular news organizations. According to their announcement about the campaign, they noted that they worked alongside advertising agency Dentsu America, Inc. to make it all possible. Unfortunately, their site is down for upgrades, but I look forward to looking through their portfolio in the near future to see what other work they have done.

Enjoy the inspiration and I encourage you to think about how you can integrate user-submission capabilities for active engagement in one of your future projects.

[Thanks to John Yard for the tip]

Other posts that might interest you:

• Toyota Why Not? Innovation Experience incorporates user input into interactive contest
• Top 50 multimedia sites of 2009
• The Watch Avenue site serves as an interactive inspiration

© 4 November 2009 Innovative Interactivity.