The ‘Amazing in Motion’ global project series was created by Lexus and CHI&Partners to celebrate the more imaginative side of the Lexus brand; to appeal to online influencers and generate earned media attention.
Inspired by the words of Lexus Chief Engineer Haruhiko Tanahashi “There is no such thing as impossible, it’s just a matter of figuring out how” - Lexus embarked on their most ambitious project.
Project ‘SLIDE’ is ‘the real, rideable Lexus Hoverboard’.
The Lexus Hoverboard was in development for well over a year. In partnership with a team of Magnetic Levitation scientists, the project required assembling superconductors, magnets and liquid nitrogen into a working hoverboard; casting a pro-skater to master the skill of ‘hoverboarding’; and building a bespoke hoverpark in Barcelona.
Every step of the project pushed Lexus to create technical innovations.
From the outset, project ‘SLIDE’ was designed to be digitally contagious. A three-month phased narrative of key messages, announcements and content releases was planned to engage the world’s mainstream media and online influencers.
‘SLIDE’ is considered the most successful Lexus brand campaign to-date. It was broadcast across all major news platforms internationally; generated an estimated US$56million+ in media value; and achieved over 33million+ content views and 1.7 billion impressions worldwide.
The Brief
Today, the world of communications is no longer about advertising ideas, but ideas worth advertising – and this is especially relevant in the automotive market where dramatic, hyperbolic claims are commonplace.
Lexus knew that to engage influencers it had to be a brand that could ‘do’, and not just ‘say’. It needed to utilise its engineering and design expertise, to create something truly amazing.
The previous projects had generated widespread pick-up across tech publications. However, this was still too niche.
The challenge was to create something so newsworthy it would place Lexus at the centre of the conversation.
Execution
On 24th June, Lexus announced via newswire, social media and influencer outreach that they had made a ‘real, rideable hoverboard’. In under 24 hours, the campaign drove more than 100million+ impressions and 11million+ views.
The first phases were designed to build anticipation and generate debate around ‘is the Lexus Hoverboard actually real?’.
Whilst the Lexus Hoverpark was constructed, spy shots were leaked by a local Spanish publication and picked up by The Verge and Mashable.
In response to the huge online demand for more content, Lexus announced their Hoverboarder via the VANs social network, and brought forward the main reveal date.
On 3rd July, under embargo, Lexus invited 16 media outlets to try the Lexus Hoverboard for themselves.
On 5th August, Lexus released a two-minute film and content series, providing the evidence everyone was asking for –that the Lexus Hoverboard is real and yes, someone can really ride it.
“The first car I will ever buy will be a Lexus. Strictly because they made a hoverboard” - Consumer Tweet
From the first announcement, the campaign drove a total of 1.7 billon impressions, 33+ million views and generated over US$56million+ media value.
Within 12-hours #LexusHover was trending and CNBC had live-broadcast an interview, heralding the tease film a “marketing slam-dunk by Lexus”.
International coverage exploded online – Reuters, Huffington Post, BBC, Wired, Bloomberg, Forbes, WSJ, E!Online, TMZ, Fox News and many more, were all broadcasting, writing and tweeting about Lexus.
Fast Company released a filmed interview questioning ‘if you are a Lexus competitor what do you do next?’
During launch, 40% of traffic driven to the Lexus website was Hoverboard related. 98% of Lexus local markets worldwide have activated the campaign via social media.
The Lexus Hoverboard is the brand’s most successful online campaign to-date.
The Strategy
Lexus identified six target verticals online: Tech, News, Culture, Sports, Automotive and Lifestyle. These were selected to reach a conquest audience; people that had not engaged with Lexus to-date.
The ambition was to get the world’s mainstream media talking about the Lexus Hoverboard.
Lexus needed this brand campaign to have international appeal, particularly across key business growth markets in Europe, Asia, America, Middle East and Australasia.
The campaign was split into five phases: Tease, Announce, Maintain, Peak and Close. Key elements of the story and image/video content releases were tied to each phase. The plan was designed upfront, but engineered to be reactive to the conversation online.
The strategic PR tools included global press release distributions; blogger outreach; under-embargo interviews; exclusive press attendance at the Lexus Hoverpark in Barcelona and selective distribution of B-Roll footage.
Furthermore, a social-media partnership with VANs was formed to build credibility in the skating community.