| Title | SLIDE, AMAZING IN MOTION |
| Brand | LEXUS INTERNATIONAL |
| Product/Service | LEXUS INTERNATIONAL |
| Category |
C02. Cars & Automotive Services |
|
Entrant Company
|
CHI & PARTNERS London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
|
Advertising Agency
|
CHI & PARTNERS London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
|
Production Company
|
SMUGGLER London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
|
Production Company 2
|
MARSHALL STREET EDITORS London, UNITED KINGDOM
|
Credits
| Jonathan Burley |
CHI & PARTNERS |
Executive Creative Director |
| Monty Verdi |
CHI & PARTNERS |
Creative Director |
| Brad Woolf/Dan Bailey |
CHI & PARTNERS |
Creative(s) |
| Zoe Barlow |
CHI & PARTNERS |
Agency Executive Producer |
| Chad Warner/Ben da Costa |
CHI & PARTNERS |
Digital/Content Creative(s) |
| Nikki Cramphorn/Nicola Ridley/Matt Cresswell |
CHI & PARTNERS |
Agency Producer(s) |
| Karina Aloupi |
CHI & PARTNERS |
Content Producer |
| Nick Howarth |
CHI & PARTNERS |
CEO |
| Jack Shute |
CHI & PARTNERS |
Business Director |
| Catherine Peacock |
CHI & PARTNERS |
Account Director |
| Nita Rushi |
CHI & PARTNERS |
PR Director |
| Ben Hanson/Simon Frost |
Carbon |
Content Director(s) |
| Nazneen Hosenie |
Carbon |
Content Producer |
| Bill McNamara |
MPC |
VFX Supervisor |
| Spencer Ferszt |
Marshall Street Editors |
Editor |
| Henry-Alex Rubin |
Smuggler |
Director |
| Fergus Brown/Chris Barrett |
Smuggler |
Executive Producer |
| Ray Leakey |
Smuggler |
Production Company |
| Atsushi Takada/David Nordstrom/Yolande Waldock |
Lexus International |
Global Brand Team |
The Brief
The brief was simple. Showcase the imagination, creativity and innovation at the heart of the Lexus brand. The difficulty came in telling that story to an audience of global influencers who didn’t care and weren’t listening. To reach them we needed to create a project with genuine social currency that would grab their attention and drive reappraisal of what they thought they knew about Lexus. With little or no media budget, the campaign needed to create its own awareness and earn, not buy, its visibility.
Campaign Success
The project was 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”. This spirit of determination, combined with Lexus’ passion for design and innovation, led to the Hoverboard project.
The project was designed to be digitally contagious from the beginning. This included:
A teaser campaign to build anticipation, leaving everyone asking – ‘can it be real?’
A media day, where 16 media outlets from across the world got to try the Lexus Hoverboard for themselves and interview key spokespeople.
A two-minute film on YouTube, showing viewers for the very first time that the Lexus Hoverboard is real and yes, someone can really ride it.
A series of content films, including a long-form documentary and niche targeted follow-up pieces to the tech and skating verticals online, all multi-formatted for YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vine.
Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results
In 24 hours, the campaign drove more than 100million+ impressions, generated over 11million+ views and #LexusHover was trending on Twitter and Facebook. Mainstream media from BBC, CNN, USA Today, ABC World News published editorial on the campaign, and CNBC live-broadcast an interview with a marketing expert on their channel, heralding the tease film a “marketing slam-dunk by Lexus”.
When the full campaign broke, Reuters, Huffington Post, BBC, Wired, Bloomberg, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, E!Online, TMZ, Fox News and many more, all wrote and tweeted about the campaign. Fast Company even released a filmed interview with two of their tech editors questioning if you are a Lexus competitor what do you do next?
In total, the campaign has generated over US$56milllion in equivalent media value, driven more than 33+million views worldwide and over 1.7billion impressions. 40% of web traffic driven to the Lexus site was Hoverboard related activity.
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Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service
The key to the success of the Lexus Hoverboard was that it was an act, not an ad. Designing and building a real custom Hoverboard and ‘Hoverpark’ provided the location for the live demonstration in front of the world’s press that ultimately fuelled the coverage and conversation that meant the vast reach of the project was earned, not bought.