Toyota Ireland tells us that it wishes to spark the imaginations of kids around Ireland with their newly launched Dream Car Art Contest. It is a national art competition for under-16s that will put 15 young aspiring artists in with a chance to compete on a global stage for a once in a lifetime trip to Japan, as well as win fantastic prizes such as games consoles and art supplies.
Toyota is asking Irish children across three age group categories (under 10 years, 10-12 years, 13-15 years ) to draw or paint their idea of their Dream Car using standard art materials such as markers, paint or crayons (digital submissions will not be accepted ).
All submissions must be in colour and include a car and a background or setting. The competition is open now through to January 31, 2012 and all art entries can be submitted either via any Toyota dealerships or directly to Toyota Ireland, Killeen Road, Dublin 12. Submissions should be marked Toyota Dream Car Art Contest and must be accompanied by an entry form which can be downloaded from www.toyota.ie A panel of three judges including well known artist Don Conroy, children’s TV presenter Emma O’Driscoll, and David Shannon, managing director of Toyota Ireland will pick five finalists in each age category as the national winners. The talented 15 winners who will be announced in February, 2012, will receive the following prizes:
1st - Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect plus €100 games voucher and a signed limited edition Don Conroy print
2nd - Nintendo 3DS plus €100 games voucher
3rd - Artzone.ie five day art camp plus art party pack
4th - €150 voucher for art supplies
5th - €100 voucher for art supplies
In addition to the individual prizes, €250 Star Supplies vouchers will be awarded to the schools of the children who make it into the top five in each category.
The national winners will also be put forward into the global competition where their selected art works will compete with international winners for gold, silver, bronze, and special awards, which will be presented during a once-in-a-lifetime four-day trip to Japan in August 2012.
Commenting on the announcement, David Shannon, managing director of Toyota Ireland said, “Ireland has always thrived on creativity and artistic excellence, and we look forward to discovering and celebrating the next generation of artists and seeing what lies inside their imaginations. We are looking for creative and distinctive artworks that will catch the eye of our judges, represent Ireland on a global platform and give us an imaginative vision of what a car of the future could look like.”
Toyota still the world’s number one automotive brand
Meanwhile, Toyota has retained its position as the world’s top-rated automotive brand in the latest global brand value report from Interbrand. Improving its performance by six percentage points on 2010, it commands 11th place overall in the annual study.
Launched last week, Interbrand, one of the world’s leading branding consultancies, highlighted Toyota’s achievement in meeting the challenges posed by quality issues in 2010 and the effects of the Japan earthquake and tsunami earlier this year.
It said: “Even though Toyota faced both an internal crisis and an external crisis, the company forged ahead by focusing on safety and quality, modifying its leadership structure and capitalising on its world-renown green efforts.”
Interbrand calculates its rankings on analysis of three key aspects that contribute to overall brand value: the financial performance of branded products and services; the role of the brand in purchase decisions; and the strength of the brand in securing earnings for a company.
Toyota’s success has been recorded in difficult global economic conditions. Interbrand noted that those businesses which, like Toyota, had improved their performance in the report, showed their ability in “adapting to a new reality” in an uncertain business climate.
