Toyota is pointing Prius Prime TV ads at exactly the customers it wants

[Suarez™]

As Toyota markets its new Prius Prime plug-in hybrid the automaker is going after a very specific consumer: tech-savvy, knowledge-hungry drivers ages 18-49 with household incomes of $75,000 or more and who tend to be environmentally conscious but also economical.

So instead of running a national TV campaign, Toyota's media plan is highly targeted, including one of the automaker's largest addressable TV buys ever. Addressable TV ads, which allow marketers to target consumers by household characteristics, remains a small but growing fraction of TV buys.

Research firm eMarketer projected in a report earlier this year that addressable in the U.S. would surge by 119.4 percent this year to $890 million. But that remains just 1.3 percent of total TV ad spending, according to the report.

Automakers are drawn to addressable because ads can be used to target households with car leases that are set to expire, meaning they could be in the market to buy a car soon.

Toyota declined to release the financial terms of its deal. But Lisa McQueen, media manager for Toyota Motor Sales USA, suggested in a statement that the deal will allow the automaker to target potential Prius Prime buyers who "see their vehicle as an extension of their consumption of advanced technology."

She added: "Addressable TV is an efficient way to reach those consumers while still taking advantage of the premium linear TV positioning to build awareness."

"An expanded universe of data sources that allow for one-to-one communication is what makes the promise of addressable TV so attractive to the marketplace, and especially automakers," said Janet Waters, communications director for Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles, which handles media planning and creative advertising for Toyota. "As the delivery pipes converge and TV simply becomes another screen, the improved ability to reach a targeted audience will significantly increase buying efficiency."