Toyota’s Asian-American agency, Intertrend Communications, partnered with Time Out to extend “Call Your Shot,” an Intertrend-conceived platform built on the idea that bold aspirations and the challenges to achieve them are a timeless pursuit. The platform's flagship moment was “The Speed Project,” an invite-only 340-mile L.A.-to-Vegas ultramarathon, where Toyota fielded Team Toyota, six Asian American runners taking on one of endurance running's most demanding stages. Time Out's role was to extend that story further into culturally specific content to increase brand awareness for AAPI audiences, using the runners as inspiration.
Time Out's contribution, Call Your Shot: The Starting Line, translated that inspiration into a branded article on the Team Toyota runners and the race itself, a three-part video series following influential AAPI changemakers Brian Puspos (Houston, TX/world-renowned choreographer), Mirai Nagasu (Arcadia, CA/Olympic bronze-medalist figure skater) and Jaeki Cho (Queens, NY/Content creator and community activist) back to the communities that shaped them, an interactive destination hub tying it all together, and a live cultural event. The objective throughout was to build measurable relevance and inspiration for AAPI audiences to see Toyota in a new emotional light.
When Intertrend put out a call to media partners for the “Call Your Shot” campaign, we at Time Out knew we could bring something to the table that was very, well, Time Out.
Intertrend conceived “Call Your Shot” as Toyota's platform around bold ambition in the AAPI community, anchored in The Speed Project, an invite-only 340-mile ultramarathon from L.A. to Las Vegas. For 2026, they fielded Team Toyota, six Asian American runners (three men, three women), reframing an endurance race as a statement about who gets to take up space in a sport.
We looked at the concept through the Time Out lens, and crafted a program that extended Intertrend’s Toyota concept to our AAPI audiences. We created a connected ecosystem called The Starting Line, where cities were integral to the stories of three remarkable Asian Americans who called their shots.
We started with a branded article on Team Toyota and The Speed Project itself. Framed around the six runners—Lono Brazil III (New York lead), Ryan Sung, Ray Leung, Rosa Kwak, Kayla Lim and Jenny Walrod—we introduced the “Call Your Shot” message of grit and determination in the AAPI community to Time Out's audience.
Next came the centerpiece of Call Your Shot: The Starting Line, with a three-part longform branded video series, each a homecoming story: Brian Puspos returning to Houston, Texas, Mirai Nagasu returning to Arcadia, California and Jaeki Cho returning to Queens, New York. Rather than featuring a vehicle or product, each film let its subject narrate their story while guiding us through the cities that helped make them who they are, all while positioning Toyota as a supporter of ambition rather than the story's subject.
The series lived on Time Out's YouTube channel and was anchored by a custom interactive destination page, bringing together the films, key storytelling moments and supporting content in one place. The full ecosystem was extended through Time Out's social and email platforms.
The campaign culminated in Call Your Shot: The Starting Line LIVE!, a takeover of Time Out Market New York in Dumbo. The evening was designed to translate the series' theme into an in-person, culturally specific experience to catalyze everyday Asian Americans to initiate pursuit of their own bold moves. Guests began at a branded Starting Line registration, then moved through four cultural stations, each rooted in a distinct AAPI tradition (Chinese calligraphy, Korean Dancheong art, a Vietnamese strategy game and an Indian Kalava thread ritual), sampled dishes from Asian-owned vendors Okiboru and Wayla, and heard Call Your Shot moments and asked questions of a Changemaker Q&A panel featuring Victoria Yang, a fashion exec who left it all to start “At Your Leisure,” a travel and leisure brand, and Johnny Baesa, who runs the popular @johnnyeatsnyc social accounts. The night closed out with a live AAPI DJ set from DJ Rebel Army. Guests who completed the journey were entered into a Time Out sweepstakes where the winner received $5,000 to help them make their own bold move.
Across the full ecosystem, the campaign drove 9.4MM impressions and 89K clicks, with an overall content package CTR of 0.95%. The branded article on Team Toyota and The Speed Project drove 16.9K page views, with surrounding media adding another 38.6K impressions at a 2.14% CTR. The video series drove 78K YouTube views and the interactive hub drew 19.1K page views.
The live event drew 511 RSVPs, 75% of whom identified as AAPI, with 102 completing the full journey and entering the sweepstakes. The winner put the prize money toward new equipment for free and low-cost programming for New York communities through OMNY Taiko, a nonprofit community taiko drumming ensemble she leads as artistic director and president. It was an unscripted ending that felt entirely in keeping with the campaign's intent.
Time Out's proprietary Time Out Loud Brand Lift study confirmed the work landed culturally, not just numerically: 94% found the content relevant, 8 percentage points above benchmark, and respondents described feeling "closer to the brand as an Asian American" and praised the "Asian representation." Perception of Toyota as "Inspiring" rose 87.5% and purchase intent rose 38% among those who recalled the campaign.