The Lexus RC F experience told through a race car driver

Client: Lexus International                                                   

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon Tokyo

Background: The idea for the social media campaign and content series was based on the RC F positioning: a race-ready car anyone can drive and enjoy. To express this, the campaign followed everyday Lexus driver James Rossiter as he drove a production RC F from Tokyo to Fuji Speedway before suiting up to take the wheel of a Lexus RC F GT 500 as a 2015 Lexus Racing driver.

To create a link between the product (RC F) and the “performance, emotions” of the RC F GT500, the campaign allowed James Rossiter to answer questions from followers on Twitter for a more interactive experience.

Seven stories were released on a weekly basis with each one building on the last and lingering on a different aspect of the Lexus's brand activities. A webisode series was also released to enhance the story telling in motion and overall the series aimed to unite the racing and lifestyle elements of the brand.

“The Facebook native player is a must for videos,” said Antoine Malin, producer and social manager at Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon Tokyo. “The platform also introduced a powerful ad solution that allows marketers to re-target viewers of previous videos. In other words, the user comes on the first time and sees first webisode, then comes on the second time and sees the second webisode."

“We used this Facebook ad solution for #JamesOnLexus with great success, building up the audience from webisode 1 to 3,” he added.

The webisodes were posted focused on Facebook and Twitter's native players and uploaded to YouTube merely for sharing purposes.

Results: According to the agency, the webisode series has reached more than 1.2 million views online across all platforms so far. The hashtag #JamesOnLexus was mentioned 5,000 times on Twitter. The social media stories combined reached approximately 5 million unique people. While all the webisodes have been released, there is one more story to be released.

Campaign’s view: The campaign captured the lifestyle and emotions of the driver, which were channelled effectively into the product and brand. The webisodes were short but engaging and Facebook’s video retargeting suited the purpose.                                                                                                           

CREDITS

Producer and Social Manager: Antoine Malin

Photographer: Eric Micotto

Videographer: Austin Uchino    

Morning coffee at INTERSECT BY LEXUS