The agency designed and developed a fully-functioning Hoverboard. We then filmed it being put through its paces on a specially designed Hoverpark and released this film online

Creating a fully-functioning Hoverboard was only one half of the challenge – the other was to reach a global audience with next to no media spend.

We created anticipation for the campaign with a teaser phase which gave a preview of the Hoverboard leaving people asking ‘Is this real?’.

The coverage from these media outlets built anticipation for the launch of the campaign and prepared the way for amplification at launch.

On August 4th we launched our two-minute online film showing our Hoverboard being put through its paces in a specially designed and constructed Hoverpark. This was released through YouTube and amplified extensively by media partners across the sectors we had identified in tech, design, automotive and lifestyle.

We followed the main film with documentary content hosted on an online Lexus platform, giving our audience the chance to learn the story behind the Hoverboard

Knowledge/Consideration:

Coverage of SLIDE has been globally positive: To date the campaign has received over 40 million views, over 30,000 pieces of media coverage and an estimated PR value of $64m.

Outputs/Business Results:

40% of web traffic driven to the Lexus site was by SLIDE related activity.

The Lexus Hoverboard is currently the brand’s most successful online campaign to date.

The PR Lions celebrate the creative use of reputation. SLIDE did exactly that, challenging the audience’s understanding of the brand and getting the world talking about Lexus.

Lexus wanted to engage with a global influencer audience but didn’t have their attention and were outspent by the German luxury automotive brands.

To connect with that audience, the agency needed to do something to out-smart the competition with next to no media budget. Every view, every comment and every share had to be organic and earned, not paid for.

Our idea had to be something that would influence the influencers.

Lexus is a global luxury car brand, a challenger in the category against Audi, Mercedes and BMW.

The Lexus brand is better known for it’s engineering credentials than for its imagination or creativity; our brief was to change this perception by demonstrating a side of the brand that hadn’t been seen before.