Toyota has created made-for-mobile, branded videos - and launched a TV campaign to send viewers to watch them on their mobile phones.

The six short mobile episodes of "The Pool" are about a group of carpoolers who drive a Toyota Camry, and will make their debut on the mobile comedy channels of Fun Little Movies (FLM), a video production company, reports ClickZ. Toyota is spending more than $10 million to create, distribute and promote for what it says is likely the first branded entertainment series created for the medium by a major advertiser, writes AdWeek.

In what is likely another first, Toyota will run TV ads - to promote not only the car but also the mobisodes - on broadcast and cable TV networks, including UPN, Fox, BET and ABC. An online campaign is planned to launch in August, when the mobile episodes become available; they'll be available for free to all Sprint users in the U.S. with a video-enabled phone beginning August 9. Toyota is targeting urban twenty- and thirty-somethings with the mobile series, particularly the "connecteds" - savvy influencers.

Publicis-owned Burrell Communications created the ads, working with several Los Angeles-based companies, including FLM, branded entertainment firm Nanmade Entertainment and producer Alturas Films. Filmmaker Malcolm Lee directed the comedy series.