Google Hangouts Used in Creative Way

By Jeri Denniston, Chief Marketing Strategist, Denner Group International

Toyota has launched a creative way to use Google Hangouts to build their brand. Not that brand recognition is necessary for the #1 car manufacturer in the world. But I’ll bet this helps sell more Corollas.

Toyota has taken hangouts to a new level making car buying a fun and easy experience, done from the comfort of your own home. Through their ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, they approached Joystick Interactive to create a Collaborator App for use on tablets and mobile phones using Google Hangouts, that would enable people to customize a car. It was launched in November 2013.

Here’s the deal

Using the Toyota Collaborator App, you invite a group of friends to join you in a private Google Hangout and collaborate on customizing a Toyota Corolla. Choose color, wheel rims, interior, and even take it for a test drive.

Now, think about how you might use Google Hangouts with business colleagues? What kind of a collaborative hangout might you launch?

Perhaps you invite team members to join you on a Google Hangout to resolve a customer service issue. Instead of color and wheel choices, you have service options to choose and vote on. Google Hangouts allow up to 9 webcams live simultaneously, so you can see one another, transfer the screen controls back and forth, and record the session for those who couldn’t attend. Assign someone to take notes, document poll results, etc.

How might you use this to build a product, re-design packaging, solve a challenging issue? How can you make it a fun experience while getting the work done? That’s the secret to what Toyota has created with their collaborator app using Google+ Hangouts.

Of course, they didn’t build it themselves. But wouldn’t it be cool if Joystick Interactive and Google collaborated to make such a tool available for the rest of us to use in our businesses?