Lexus Accelerates into All Venues in Push for Revamped IS Sedan
Lexus is leaving no media silo untapped in a new campaign that has more varied non-traditional placements, media experiments, and interactive gewgaws than an MIT lab, all to back a totally redesigned version of its entry performance sedan, IS.
The car, on sale in October, vies against BMW's 3-Series and Nissan's G35, among others, in the hotly contested $30,000 or thereabouts luxury sports sedan market. It hasn't fared well in the past, and with its redesign, based on the “L-finesse” body-design language developed over the past two years, Lexus hopes to ignite both the segment and the brand. Lexus will back the re-launch of the car with an integrated grassroots, Internet, and national and regional TV and print, direct and nontraditional campaign, via TeamOne, Torrance, Calif. Tagline for the campaign: “Why Live in One Dimension?”
The program includes a Web site, www.TheNewIS.com, where visitors can pose questions about the car to chief engineer Suguya Fukusato, and upload photos to the Web site to enter a sweepstakes to win the car. Some of those photos will be used to form a photo mosaic on the Reuters digital billboard in New York's Times Square, starting Sept. 3.
There will also be low and high-tech urban presentations: Lexus has hired artist Kurt Wenner to create “three-dimensional street art” celebrating the car. The first piece will be on display Sept. 5-11 at New York's Boardwalk/Shea Stadium as part of the US Open tennis tournament.
On the high-tech side, a full-sized hologram of the car at an interactive kiosk from which the user can rotate the car, change its color and choose to watch a 15-second driving sequence will tour venues like Times Square, the Hollywood Bowl and USC through this year.
Next month, Lexus will also be title sponsor of Surface magazine's “The Avant Guardian,” a portfolio of rising photographers. The car will be featured in some of the photos, and will be present on a road show of mural-sized versions of the pictures.
The luxury unit of Toyota Motor Sales will hit the airwaves with four 30-second national brand TV commercials Oct. 17 on prime, late night and cable and sports programs, complemented with a raft of four- and five-page print gatefolds, three-quarter spreads in papers, and outdoor billboards.
Finally, outdoor will also include digital panels in New York with 20-second video units, and coffee sleeves in 10 markets, and at American Airlines' Admiral Clubs in 13 airports, and an exclusive sponsorship of an XM Satellite Radio concert series
Source: Bloomberg