H/L & Toyota

When H&L Partners drafted a promising, but relatively unknown San Francisco Giants rookie catcher to be the face of Toyota’s regional advertising across Northern California and the Central Valley, it wasn’t as big of a gamble as some thought.
We were fans ourselves, after all, and we recognized the potential behind the mask, despite the challenges of casting someone who rarely showed his face on the field.
Over more than a decade of humorous commercials, our efforts helped define Buster’s likability off the field.
We never portrayed Buster as a pitch person or even a spokesperson for the Toyota brand. Instead, we let Buster be Buster—riffing on his star power and building brand affinity among Northern Californians for Toyota.
We later brought on an ensemble cast, including Buster’s wife, Kristen, Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Jon Miller, Manager Bruce Bochy, the legendary broadcast team of Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper, Renel Brooks-Moon, Amy Gutierrez, and even the team mascot, Lou Seal.

Video submission here: https://youtu.be/NxAqQaBeXUQ

Share This Case Study

More Case Studies

WHITE64 & Visit Fairfax

Visit Fairfax approached us with a problem: How could we make Fairfax County the go-to summer destination for Philadelphians? With other major cities within driving distance like Baltimore, D.C., and New York City we needed to find something unique about [...]

WHITE64 & [solidcore]

Our client, [solidcore] was rapidly expanding their business and they wanted to attract new members in order to sustain their expansion. They asked us to develop and deliver a brand idea to not only increase active members and new visits, [...]

True Media Canada & Toronto Animal Services

Explore Minnesota Tourism needed to drive tourism ROI. With ad-influenced trips and visitor spending each playing a role in generating returns for Minnesota’s tourism economy, we knew there was only one way to produce incremental trip growth. Audience segmentation and [...]