LEXUS EUROPE

Lead Agency

ZENITHOPTIMEDIA

LEXUS LIFE RX

The Challenge

Lexus faces a brand barrier dominance from the well-established G3
We always have to outsmart big spenders who dwarf Lexus media spend 10 to 1 (MMS)
Lexus’ perceptions are limited and generic (Gfk)
We needed to achieve significant sales growth in a flat market
In order to do so, we needed to keep conquest at the forefront, move brand metrics on Consideration, and unlock Lexus’
Desirability against the G3 by building new positive associations with aspirational/distinctive values, making Lexus an amazing choice

The Strategy

Our Communications strategy revolved around bringing the ‘Life RX’ philosophy to life: this was centred around the concept of ‘creating amazing’, showing off the RX innovation and design, and was defined as ‘Pioneering Success’, aimed to create unique experiences that resonated with luxury consumers. The creative platform – Live the Life RX – transported the audience into a high-octane, aspirational lifestyle. Elements such as a point of view narrative and immersive theatre PR launches helped to place our audience at the centre of the Life RX.

Jude Law was chosen to represent the metropolitan everyman that resonated against a conquest luxury audience as an approachable and desirable representative of luxury lifestyle, translating the Lexus brand values into consumer perception.

We had a three-phase strategy with objectives defined to engage with the right audience, at the right time and enable precise re-targeting
and optimum use of all the creative assets:
1. Pre-launching in social channels, display, OVD, mobile, print, newsletters and always-on search to disrupt inmarket consumers, build
anticipation for the new RX, build awareness of the first hero video and TVC and disrupt in-market users
2. Main launch leveraging insights from the pre-launch online presence and adding in PR announcements, OOH, TV and Print to drive
awareness of the new RX and convert consumers from unaware right through to high consideration users on the Lexus landing pages
3. RX immersive live events with Jude Law created buzz during and after the launch with compelling content through high reach, luxury
lifestyle and automotive influencers across all markets. For the final event in October 2016, Jude was involved in a livestream with content distributed online. Straight after the event, we amplified the content through YouTube in order to maximise impact and reach of a luxury lifestyle audience.

The Implementation

Jude Law starred as the embodiment of the ‘Life RX’, and we rolled-out a 360 campaign in 3 phases: 1. January – ‘Introducing Jude’: the new TVC launched, shot in POV, putting the viewer in the driving seat 2. February – ‘Meeting Jude’: 100 guests were thrown into a live theatrical experience of ‘The Life RX’ in a 14-scene ‘odyssey’ at the Mondrian hotel. Each room brought unexpected scenarios that required guests to improvise in their new persona as an international movie star. Jude surprised each guest by sharing the ‘red-carpet scene’ finale.

To maximise reach and earned media value, a 2-mn video was distributed through YouTube, targeting a luxury lifestyle audience; we partnered with Mashable to distribute the content across their site, and with top lifestyle and automotive influencers who wrote and distributed unique content on the event.

1. October – ‘Being Jude’: the final event saw Jude Law giving an improvised live-streamed performance across Soho; an
interactive storyline followed him on board a white RX as he gathered a cast for a final live theatre performance. He received stage and script directions from viewers tuning in to choose what Jude did next – challenging him to sharpen his artistic, gastronomy and hosting skills. A 90” video was developed within 12 hours of the event and distributed across all markets targeting luxury
lifestyle and automotive enthusiasts. We also partnered with three leading luxury lifestyle influencers to leverage the content across their social platforms, driving incremental reach that positioned Lexus to an aspirational audience across Europe.

The Result

Traveling live with Vodafone took over social media by storm. Thanks to the amazing people and places and a smashing performance by Mia Buehler “I’ll show you the world” gathered over 1m social interactions in just five live days. That’s double the number of half a year’s social interactions on editorial Vodafone content. The experiment using live video content instead of product messages exceeded all expectations with over 6m video views and 80m reach in total. From a qualitative side, the ad recall of the core TG (25-34) increased 54,5%. And: The world is still a big place (with an improving 4G network coverage).