Yokohama Canada

Shaving Seconds


Yokohama, a luxury tire brand, turned to We Are Social Toronto, with the goal of gaining the upper hand in their fight for attention and consideration from driving enthusiasts. Our goal was to drive awareness and make our Japanese brand more culturally relevant for Canadians in a highly competitive market.


Through our research and insight work, we found that driving enthusiasts were seriously losing interest in motorsports culture. The conversation was deteriorating along with search and attendance, and this decline was 5 years in the making. Our most valuable piece of information was that almost all the major automotive brands were neglecting their audience. They were constantly fed them highly stylized, polished and superficial car technology content. This inspired us to revive the human connection by putting the spotlight on the people behind the car rather than the car itself. ﻿

This informed our phased, strategic approach where we launched Paramount Network and said goodbye to Spike TV on social simultaneously. We needed to send off Spike like a legend without angering his existing fan base while simultaneously making Paramount Network famous.


We focused on the human skill behind racing to create ‘Shaving Seconds’, Yokohama’s first ever socially-led campaign. We partnered with an underdog racing team led by a rookie driver who was possessed with unrivalled passion and dedication for his team. Following their journey through the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada, we captured every success and setback to build a dynamic mix of social experiences that brought our audience together. ﻿.


A social documentary, fan experiences, live content and even photographer challenges made up the breadth of the campaign, with earned and paid extending reach over 1.8 million fans in just one week. The transformation was evident, with a 417% increase in conversation YoY. Yokohama single handedly revived motorsports culture in Canada and changed perception of the brand. Driving enthusiasts now saw Yokohama not as a tire company, but as an integral part of their community - and it all happened overnight.