HIGHLY COMMENDED AUTOMOTIVE
Brand
Lead Agency
LEXUS
ZENITHOPTIMEDIA
INTERNATIONAL
STRIKING
ANGLES
The Challenge
Lexus is renowned for making high end premium sedans and SUVs. People perceive the brand as
luxurious but expensive. Brand loyalists as well as new entrants into the brand tend to be mature buyers,
hence an ageing customer base and slow growth.
To achieve business ambitions, Lexus needed to attract younger luxury car buyers who would usually
choose the German three (G3) - BMW, Mercedes Benz and Audi. With the G3 having a combined market
share of 84% across Europe and budgets five times Lexus’s, this meant a challenging fight for this younger
audience.
The NX was positioned as a game-changer for the Lexus brand. Its striking design had to set the cool tone
for the future. Brand perceptions had to be challenged. With 75% of people already having a brand in mind
when entering the purchase process, we had to ensure we were already on their consideration list.
Getting this new audience to listen, and to start a relationship with Lexus from nothing was going to take
something very different to the norm. Being in a position of disadvantage, Lexus had to stand out from
their established traditional codes of advertising. The tried and tested marketing rulebook needed to be
ripped up.
The Strategy
We needed to establish NX at the cutting edge of luxury design – and away from the traditional luxury Lexus is known for - so
as to attract Young Urban Aspirers, affluent 25-45 year olds who enjoy city life and urban culture, whose lifestyle is fuelled by
digital and Twitter-worthy moments. Far from the typical sixty-plus year-old Lexus buyer.
Consumer research suggested that reaching our audience was more about exclusive experiences than objects that signified
their status. Therefore, we needed to create inspirational rather than just aspirational communications.
Our brand narrative needed to shift to have a credible voice with Young Urban Aspirers, as to not only be heard, but also
listened to - say something they will actually pay attention to. We had to shift from country house to city pad. From quiet and
refined weekends on the golf course to exciting weekends amidst city buzz. We had to become what they’re interested in and
be part of the culture an affluent, young urbanite lives and breathes. And we had to dominate media channels and environments
that are native to our urban multi-taskers and multi-screeners.
To cut through, we required a multi-faceted, content-rich media approach across digital first environments that could showcase
the NX’s cool, design credentials to our target all along the purchase journey, ensuring we delivered a meaningful brand
experience at every contact.
We aimed to deliver the NX product campaign that defined new communications norms for the brand, all rooted in a product
truth – the amazing urban design of the new NX. From influencer partnerships, targeted lifestyle media mix, immersive digital
and virtual reality experiences and collaboration with the A-list inspiring global artist – these ground-breaking for Lexus initiatives
had to kick-start transformation of Lexus into an inspirational brand that young urbanites would aspire to have.
The Implementation
We needed a campaign as multi-faceted as the car itself. We delivered this through a three-step execution
strategy.
First, three months prior to the car being available in dealerships, we created a platform that virtually
showcased the new NX’s cool credentials via a white-labelled, digital content partnership with Vice under
the 'NX Perspectives' umbrella. Edgy contemporary artists from the fields of fashion, digital art and music important territories to Lexus as a brand - using NX provocative design as an inspiration, produced cuttingedge digital assets. These were seeded first across Vice influencer network to gain traction with relevant
thought leaders, and afterwards targeted at wider audience in premium lifestyle environments.
A multi-level collaboration with global icon will.i.am followed. This spanned creating an exclusive music
track, an installation at the Barbican's 'Digital Revolution' exhibition, appearance in TVC and exclusive PR
launch event unveiling the custom-made NX. We timed this with Paris Fashion Week, ahead of Paris Motor
Show, creating additional media frenzy around NX. Collaboration was also amplified with will.i.am tweets to
his 13 million followers.
The campaign was further activated across Europe via local ATL and social media alongside several highend local events. Russia for example created a series of theatrical performances personifying NX as the
must-have car for urbanites, whereby in Western Europe Oculus Rift brought NX to life via premium virtual
reality experience.
A refresh burst six months after launch revived the multi-faceted nature of NX focussing on mobile and
video across lifestyle channels.
The Result
We smashed pre-sales target by 59%, achieving 15,255 sales by the end of December 2014 against our
target of 9,000. We also reached order bank targets three months in advance.
We broke the mould and reached younger audience, with Lexus buyer’s median age decreasing from 61
to 57 years old (France, Germany and Spain). Also, a staggering 69.05% of web visits across core
European markets came from people who had never visited the Lexus site before.
In addition, 149,758 young people across our markets interacted with a bespoke Shazam experience and
will.i.am track featured in our TV ad, resulting in the 3rd most Shazamed ad in the UK at launch. Lastly, a
bespoke study by Vice showed a +39% increase in opinion that NX is for young people.
Furthermore, we positively shifted perceptions towards Lexus being a “cool” and “design-led” brand which
are critical to Lexus, as it evolves into an edgier brand with a striking model line-up.
A series of emotional responses and brand research (Gfk, ad Posttest, GMI) demonstrated a 12% uplift in
opinion of Lexus as ‘cool’ and a 28% boost in perception that Lexus makes distinctively designed cars.
It was a multi-faceted campaign for a multi-faceted car.
HIGHLY COMMENDED AUTOMOTIVE