Automotive: Kitcatt Nohr Digitas for Lexus

Kitcatt Nohr Digitas

Client Lexus

Team Paul Ferry – Account Director, Dave Barrett – Copywriter, Jamie Tierney – Head of Film/Art Director, Alex Allen – Art Director, Andy Edwards – Video Editor, Rob Franklin – Freelance Director, Sara Nicolson – Marketing Manager

How did the campaign make a difference? To communicate the experience of the world's ultimate luxury vehicle and its perfectly controlled environment, a film showed the Lexus LS was the ideal home for the most delicate flowers. The film was hand-delivered to 1,000 selected prospects with a single orchid: 64 have since gone on to buy – and 23 bought an LS, for an ROI of 13:1.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? Lexus LS buyers are among the world's most sought-after customers; they include presidents, FTSE 100 CEOs, professional sportsmen and entrepreneurs. They're also the individuals every marketer wants to reach. They are very busy people, who are difficult to talk to, and they tend to have a very short attention span indeed. So the launch of the new LS presented a major challenge. Lexus couldn't rely on prospects reading about it at length, so the team decided to show, rather than tell about, the 'perfect environment for you'. The new Lexus LS has Nanoe™ Technology that cleans the air and upholstery and produces an environment both cool and moisture-rich. What better strategy could there be than showing prospects that the new LS is a space where even orchids can thrive?

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? Orchids are notorious for being some of the most delicate and difficult flowers to grow. The flowers demonstrated the amazing refinement of the new Lexus LS by living within the vehicle for a week. This demonstrated that Nanoe™ technology is so sensitive and so accurate, it can support even the most delicate of flowers – including the global A-list on the prospect base. A beautifully shot film showed prospects a little more about the amazing refinement of the new LS. The challenge was to ensure that the audience both received and watched the film. The agency created a beautiful black box, containing the film on a memory stick together with a single orchid. These boxes were hand-delivered to ensure that prospects received them personally.

Results This highly targeted campaign was the only national marketing support for the launch of the model. A total of 1,000 boxes were hand-delivered to carefully selected profiled individuals; 64 went on to buy a Lexus, with 23 buying an LS. The LS sells for between £71,995 and £99,495 (on average a sale is worth £85,000), so these 23 sales represent an amazing ROI of 13:1 for a single communication. And, given the longer than average purchase process, the dealer network fully expects even more of the mailing recipients to convert and purchase over the next few months.