Lexus: INTRODUCED BY TWEETS

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Consumer Engagement

Advertiser: LEXUS

Product/Service: LEXUS CT 200H

Agency: LAUNCHED AMSTERDAM

Date of First Appearance: Jan 4 2011

Entrant Company: LAUNCHED AMSTERDAM, Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Entry URL: http://takeoverlexusct.nl/

Creative Director: Nico Akkerman (Launched Amsterdam)

Managing Partner: Jurgen Bernardy (Launched Amsterdam)

Art Director: Thomas Aberson (Launched Amsterdam)

Account Manager: Stella Nulens (Launched Amsterdam)

Designer: Dries Duives (Launched Amsterdam)

Technical developer: Edward Tetteroo (Thispagecannotbefound.com)

Technical developer: Jordi Buskermolen (Thispagecannotbefound.com)

Flash developer: Bertrand Candas (Thispagecannotbefound.com)

Strategy Partner: Paul van der Veer (SVB Media)

Media placement: TV Campaign - 3 Spots - National TV - 4 January 2011

Media placement: Outdoor Campaign - Billboard - Billboards 4 Locations - 22 February 2011

Media placement: Newspaper Ad - Full Page Ad - Telegraaf, NRC Next - 1 March 2011

Media placement: Online - Rich Media - NU.nl Homepage - 1 March 2011



Insights, Strategy & the Idea

On March 1st 2011 Lexus introduced the CT 200h, their new compact hybrid car, in The Netherlands. Being a small and unknown player on the Dutch market so far, Lexus wants to use the launch of this model to establish itself as a prestigious brand. We realized this would not be achieved with a conventional launch campaign about the key benefits of this car. Instead we decided to focus on the car's desirability and its introduction date. The CT 200h is mainly targeted at affluent singles and couples under 40. Almost the entire target group is new to the brand, as Lexus has a small client base in Holland. Telling these consumers about the new Lexus CT 200h being desirable in advertising would have been totally fake and ineffective.

Instead, we have engaged with consumers and facilitated them to talk about it themselves, literally making it both trustworthy and newsworthy.



Creative Execution

In a 60 days prelaunch campaign on TV and outdoor, with the tagline "annoyingly close", we showed people who just could not wait for the new Lexus to arrive in Holland. This caused people to start telling their followers on Twitter how they recognized themselves in this. On the actual launch day, March 1st, we showed all these tweets in a newspaper ad. But more importantly, we invited people to tweet the same day using #ct200h, to express their excitement about this new Lexus being finally available. During 24 hours we showed all new tweets, even the negative ones, live on Holland's largest news website. Millions of visitors of the news website Nu.nl could also tweet directly from the page, making it as easy as possible to participate. People clearly liked seeing their own tweets on nu.nl, as Lexus soon became a trending topic on the day of launch.



Results and Effectiveness

In only one day tweets with #ct200h, of which 90% were positive, reached over 200,000 people (being half the Dutch Twitter population). The Lexus website was visited by 88,000 people, which is normally around 1,000/day. The number of online test-drive appointments made on that single day was twice the number of all appointments Lexus had seen in the whole of 2010. This massive response made the CT 200h instantly recognised as a desirable car, admired by many. Mid-March Lexus already had gained a segment share of 10%, making it one of the most successful and engaging car introductions in Holland.