TOYOTA Brand: Grip, A Toyota Story | Brand + Creative Strategy
GRIP didn’t start as an ad campaign. It started as a question: What if a car brand stopped trying to sell and started telling stories instead?
That question led us here — three full seasons of an original anime series, streamed across YouTube, Twitch, Spotify, and Toyota.com.
Each chapter brought together action, emotion, identity, and the unexpected thrill of driving, without ever talking specs. It didn’t just show how Toyota drives. It showed what drives Toyota.
Watch all three seasons here.
SEASON 1
We kicked things off with a mini-doc on Vice. A raw look at how GRIP got made, character sketches, sci-fi worldbuilding, and a car brand just casually creating an anime. We also hid exclusive episodes inside Vice’s platform for the fans who live for lore.
Then we dropped an anime alter ego quiz. Fans answered questions, got matched with custom characters, and spent way too long screenshotting their results. Peak shareability. Zero sales pitch.
SEASON 2
We handed our world over to Atarashii Gakko! and let them break it. GRIP clips, GR lineup, full-blown J-pop chaos. No brand guidelines survived, which was kind of the point. (The GRIP feature kicks in at 1:15. Worth it.)
We showed up at FamilyStyle and streamed it live. Food, anime, GRIP merch, real fans in real time. The line to get in wrapped around the block.
SEASON 3
By Season 3, GRIP didn’t need hype. It got homepage love from Complex and showed up in editorial like it belonged there, because at that point, it kind of did. We kept the rollout scroll-led, culture-first, and wrapped it all up at Anime Impulse with a booth built for fans who knew every episode by heart.
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My Contribution
As a brand strategist, I grounded GRIP in one truth: Gen Z skips ads, but stops for story. I brought the insight that anime is now pop culture, especially for Asian American youth. I helped shape the narrative direction and pitched Kumail Jo, a South Asian character with depth, not tokenism. Name, backstory, design. I built him to feel real. This wasn’t about adding diversity. It was about building something people actually cared about.
Why it mattered
GRIP was never about shoving product in front of young audiences. It was about building trust, connection, and presence through storytelling that looked and felt like something people would choose to watch. This campaign gave Asian American fans an anime they could see themselves in. It moved Toyota out of the category box and into cultural relevance.
Agency: Intertrend Communications