Slide
Lexus International
Issue 37 | December 2015
Agency
CHI & Partners
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director Jonathan Burley Creative Director Monty Verdi Creatives Brad Woolf, Dan Bailey Digital & Content Creatives Chad Warner, Ben da Costa Digital Designer Chad Warner
Production Team
Agency Executive Producer Zoe Barlow Agency TV Producer Zoe Barlow, Nikki Cramphorn, Nicola Ridley, Matt Cresswell, Lindsay Hughes Agency Content Producer Karina Aloupi Production Company Smuggler Post Production Company MPC Content Production Company Carbon
Other Credits
CHI&Partners CEO Nick Howarth CHI&Partners Business Director Jack Shute CHI&Partners Account Director Catherine Peacock CHI&Partners Account Manager Chris Tivey, Lexi Alston CHI&Partners Planner Rebecca Munds Public Relations Nita Rushi
Date
August 2015
Background
'Slide' was the fourth project in the 'Amazing in Motion' campaign for Lexus, designed to illustrate the brand's engineering credentials and adventurous spirit.
Idea
Ever since 'Back to the Future' showed a hoverboard, designers and technologists have tried to actually build one.
Lexus, working with a team of scientists specialising in magnetic levitation at IFW Dresden and evico GmbH, managed to pull it off.
The Lexus Hoverboard used a combination of liquid-nitrogen-cooled super-conductors and permanent magnets to float.
Having made it, the next challenge was to find someone to ride it.
Pro-skateboarder Ross McGouran taught himself to float on the board in a custom-built hoverpark, where he even managed to glide across water.
Without friction, it required new skills in the stance and balance.
A teaser film was released on June 24th, generating more than 3,500 headlines around the world. More than a million people voiced their excitement, leading to 9m views in under a month.
A second announcement in July confirmed that McGouran was the rider in the video. And on August 5th the final video was released.
Results
The Lexus Hoverboard project was one of 2015's biggest tech stories (and Lexus' most successful brand campaign ever).
The campaign was covered by major broadcasters on four continents on the morning of launch, attracting more than 33m views, 1.7bn online impressions and 167,000 online mentions in under two months – the equivalent of $56m worth of advertising with next to no media spend.
The project sparked more than 30,000 headlines, with influencers citing it as an example of the future of marketing, and CNBC calling the project "a marketing slam dunk".
Further stats include: 40,000 posts for main film on launch day alone; trending on Facebook and Twitter, 167k+ mentions online
Our Thoughts
The secret to branded content is to stop thinking like an adman and to start thinking like a broadcaster. Rather than make an advert, CHI have made a series of mini-programmes about engineering feats, hoverboards and the like. So viewers will keep returning to their YouTube channel or their website to see more. And while they are there, they may even choose to watch some of the videos that are specific to the cars themselves – on the design board, on the racetrack and even just as you might find them in a dealer’s showroom. It’s a funnel of interest that goes from the hoverboard to a Lexus IS with its “exciting petrol turbo engine providing 245 DIN HP from £28,995”.