Toyota Announces Second Annual Shareathon Program

TORRANCE, Calif., Dec. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. today launched the second annual Shareathon program, where customers can tweet about their plans to buy or a lease a new Toyota during Toyotathon and earn a $500 prepaid debit card. Building on the success of last year's program, the 2011 Shareathon has announced an additional reward program for those who rally their followers to retweet the original message. Each retweet increases the debit card amount by $50, up to a maximum of $500 from these retweets, for a total of $1,000.

From Dec. 12 through Dec. 21, shoppers who register online at www.toyota.com/shareathon, tweet a scripted Shareathon message, and then purchase or lease a new Toyota vehicle on or before Jan. 3, 2012 will be eligible for a certificate and unique coupon code redeemable for a $500 prepaid debit card. Participants will then have 48 hours to encourage their followers to retweet the initial message. As an added bonus, those followers who retweet the message will be entered to win a 2011 Prius from Toyota.

"This year Shareathon not only rewards shoppers for tweeting about their plans for a new Toyota, but is also a fun and unique way for us to engage their friends and followers," said Kimberley Gardiner, national digital marketing and social media manager for Toyota. "Last year's Shareathon was such a huge success that we decided to add an incremental element to expand the social footprint and impact of the program."

Beginning at 11:00 a.m. EST on each day of the program, certificates will be available to the first 140 people who register on the site and tweet about their plans to get a new Toyota during Toyotathon. After the new vehicle is purchased, each participant will need his or her unique coupon code and VIN to receive the prepaid debit card. Participants must submit for redemption no later than Jan. 31, 2012.

In addition to enabling users to register for the program, the Shareathon site will also generate interactive visualizations tracking the original tweets and their subsequent retweets. Users can see the journey of their tweets—as well as the tweets of others—mapped out in circular graphs in which each point represents a retweet, with color-coding to distinguish original retweets from second- and third-generation retweets.

The Shareathon promotion is separate from any existing incentive programs that may currently be in place. For official rules and to learn more, visit www.toyota.com/shareathon or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9JmbAeeON8.

About Toyota
Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc. is the marketing, sales, distribution and customer service arm of Toyota, Lexus and Scion.  Established in 1957, TMS markets products and services through a network of nearly 1,500 Toyota, Lexus and Scion dealers which sold more than 1.76 million vehicles in 2010.  Toyota directly employs nearly 30,000 people in the U.S. and its investment here is currently valued at more than $18 billion. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyota.com or www.toyotanewsroom.com.

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SOURCE Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.