Hybrid owner Craig

Toyota's new Hybrid site (Toyota.com/hybrids) isn't merely another community site for hybrid owners - but also a source of raw material for future broadcast spots.

Toyota's Hybrid site is asking its nearly 10,000 users to submit video or written messages on why they have bought or support hybrids and the automaker's Hybrid Synergy Drive technology, reports BrandWeek. The entire hybrid campaign, which will in part rely on users' submissions, will direct consumers to the Hybrid site, where they can interact with hybrid owners.

Broadcast spots are already being prepared based on some of the submitted video, said Peter Kang, creative director of emerging technology at Saatchi & Saatchi, LA, Toyota's primary agency. Saatchi developed the site with Firstborn, LA.

Having learned from GM's effort to solicit homemade commercials for the Chevy Tahoe SUV, which attracted anti-SUV videos, Toyota is monitoring and filtering the site's blogs and submissions.

"The last thing we need is a video by some guy with his girlfriend draped across a Prius," Gregg Benkendorfer, Toyota's national manager of interactive marketing, is quoted as saying.