The Rav4 Special: Give Clients What They Need And Want

Have you ever seen a commercial for a Toyota Rav4? This thing is cruising through the mountains, across open beaches, and over rocky trails. But the Rav4 is a mom car. It’s a city car. Sure, it’s raised a little bit, with more off-road capability than a Camry. But it’s still a mom car. 

So why does Toyota make commercials showing the Rav4 off-roading? Because they’re marketing to people who see themselves as adventurous, but are too busy to actually take a camping trip. Their audience for the mom car is moms who don’t want to be seen in a mom car, but still need mom car capabilities. And it works. 

This bait and switch is interesting, and it reminded me of making videos for brands. Sometimes brands say they want a certain kind of video, but they really need another kind. For example, I had a real estate client who wanted “the sickest, most energetic video possible.” They referenced the work we had done with The Chainsmokers. There was one problem. They were a real estate client. There are no rockstars or pyrotechnics in real estate. So we gave them the “Rav4 special.” We got a bunch of hero shots of the founders walking in New York and Los Angeles, and we set it to heavy-hitting electronic music. This scratched their “sickest thing ever” itch. But we also made sure to include thoughtful sound bites from an interview about what they do, who they do it for, and what they’re aiming to accomplish. This fulfilled what they truly needed to launch their business well. 

Sometimes when you give a client exactly what they want, they’re left without what they really need. But if you package what they need inside of “what they want wrapping paper”, they’ll be happy and successful.