The Lexus Heartbeat Car is not risky marketing
In this opinion piece Mumbrella’s Alex Hayes argues Lexus’ new Heartbeat Car stunt will not raise the pulses of ordinary punters.
I have to admit the new ‘world first’ Lexus ‘Heatbeat Car’ leaves me cold.
It comes across as technology for technology’s sake – they could have achieved the same results with CGI.
One person I chatted to about this paint suggested it would have cost more than the car itself ($140,000) just to apply.
It is very clever technology from M&C Saatchi’s innovation lab, which has taken many people much cleverer than me many months to develop, and I respect that.
But looking at the insight behind it – driving a fast car is exciting – you have to wonder what came first, the brief or the idea.
I’m genuinely not sure how much it’s going to change people’s perceptions of Lexus as being innovative. They’re a Japanese luxury car firm, technology is one thing the average punter would expect them to have nailed.
Admittedly this campaign is bolder than just creating another car ad – and at least they haven’t tried to come up with a ‘You bought a Jeep’ style tagline.
But it feels cold and remote – it doesn’t speak to me. It comes across as nothing more than a nice video which you watch for two minutes and then forget about.
And that’s not helped by the fact I know I’m never going to see this in the wild. I’m probably not even going to be able to see it if I went to a dealer. It will have absolutely no impact on my life.
Even the monotone voiceover on the video – which handily doubles as a case study video – describes it as a “project”.
And that leaves me feeling a little cheated.
It comes from the same innovation lab – Tricky Jigsaw – that pioneered the Clever Buoy. For me this isn’t in the same league.
Cynics have accused Clever Buoy of being scam. It’s not. It’s a brilliant idea that will improve the lives of millions if and when it becomes commercially viable.
Just this week we saw Mick Fanning’s brush with a shark capture world headlines – it taps into a primal fear most people have, especially in Australia.
And it deserved to win innovation awards because it is an innovative use of technology, and marketing awards for the amount of publicity it garnered for Optus.
This Lexus campaign will probably do well in PR and content categories, but I would argue it won’t do so well in the innovation categories. It’s very clever engineering, but fundamentally pointless outside of the campaign remit.
Even if Lexus did make a $200,000 paint job plus wiring up available to customers who’d really want it?
In that respect it’s like the Dolmio Pepper Hacker which caused quite a bit of commentary earlier this year.
Clemenger BBDO Sydney created a clever bit of technology and generated a lot of earned media in the process, kick starting a global debate about family mealtimes as far afield as Norway.
But they also admitted it wasn’t a commercially viable product. That didn’t make it scam. It did its job in generating more attention for the brand than another TVC featuring some Italian puppets would have – that’s clever modern marketing.
I question whether outside of our marketing bubble this Lexus campaign is nearly as shareable as the Pepper Hacker for consumers. I’m not convinced it will trigger the kind of emotion that is required to drive the ordinary non-car enthusiasts to share it.
As one commenter on our story about this from earlier this week said: “Nice innovation – but it’s symbolic not functional and therefore probably quite forgettable.”
In an interview with AdNews Lexus’ CEO described the campaign as a “risk”. I don’t think it is. It’s probably cost more than making and running a TVC, but it’s not as if they’ve created a real product which could go wrong for consumers and create a backlash.
Clever Buoy, that’s risky.
- Alex Hayes is editor of Mumbrella
Updated 3pm:
Earlier today I put a few questions about the campaign to Lexus and M&C Saatchi. Here are the questions in bold with responses underneath from Lexus Australia CEO Sean Hanley.
1. How much of its own money did M&C spend on making it happen?
None. The heart beat car was developed by Lexus Australia to showcase the brand’s design, innovation and performance credentials while demonstrating how exhilarating the RC F coupe is to drive.
2. Is it correct the car was meant to launch at an event but Lexus pulled out?
No – this is incorrect. Whilst we looked at a number of launch opportunities, the RC F heart beat car has always been a standalone project that incorporates innovative technology and continues Lexus’ progressive brand direction.
3. Will the car be available for use by members of the public?
No – The RC F Heartbeat is a concept that was developed purely as a demonstration of innovative technology to encapsulate the emotion between man and machine. Lexus will align the RC F Heart beat car to existing sponsorship and event properties where both Lexus customers and members of the public may have visual access. Lexus will also examine other opportunities that will allow the brand to demonstrate this intriguing technology to the public. The car is not able to be driven on public roads.
4. Will it be put on display in showrooms?
We have a plan to make the car available to Lexus dealers who will be able to static display and demonstrate the technology in showrooms. Lexus are also reviewing broader static demonstration opportunities for the heart beat RC F coupe.
5. What is the content strategy for the campaign? Where will it be distributed? Who is the target market?
This project was created with performance car fans in mind. And, in Australia, we always had the intention to educate the public about Lexus’ passion for performance and innovation.
It is our aim via this cutting edge project to reach a broader audience and to emphasise our high performance vehicle credentials through this special concept, 5.0-litre V8 RC F coupe. There are two main chapters to how we have done this:
Firstly, we attempted to generate quality editorial coverage – in motoring, but also in the related areas of technology, design and style. To date, the story has been picked up by more than 100 titles.
As of today, we are using advertising across the news network and promoted social content to build on our momentum – expanding on our initial audiences to include brand enthusiasts and a broader luxury audience.
This will be rounded-off with a highly targeted cinema campaign in the coming weeks.
the Clever Buoy idea came before the announcement of Tricky Jigsaw ‘lab’
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Given Lexus is the master of clutching defeat from the jaws of victory with its cars, the hint of emotion in this ad could be a step in the right direction…
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Great article Alex. This Lexus work is baffling! Putting aside all the issues with tech for tech’s sake and the amount of money they wasted, it says nothing about the Lexus brand. There is no reason why this couldn’t have been done with any other car brand – sporty or otherwise. This is a great example of an agency getting carried away by a really cool idea that doesn’t actually serve any brand purpose.
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Utterly pointless – Ford has the patent: http://goo.gl/1f1g7u
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I like it.
Great reinforcement of a luxury brand’s design, innovation and performance credentials. Certainly better than anything I’ve seen from the three Germans.
I don’t need a car to show my heartbeat but I don’t think this is about that. It’s a simple demonstration of the cars impact on the driver.
It’ll be interesting to see what they do with it…
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Thanks for the comments and views guys – I put some questions to Lexus earlier and have updated the piece now with their responses down the bottom of the article.
Cheers,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella
1) Risky doesn’t mean it’s a good idea, and vice versa
2) “it says nothing about the Lexus brand” – it says they’re on the forefront of technology. Something that luxury car brands are all trying to do.
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It’s still the most expensive Toyota on the market.
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I think it’s a bit of a line in the sand from Lexus “we can do funky, innovative stuff, and we’re willing to do it, which is smart if they’re wanting to change the yak about the brand in the younger demograohic. It will be interesting to watch this space.
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Planning insight + creative idea + technology innovation = Gold
Forget to include one of these items (in this instance the creative element) = mehhhh
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“Lexi!”
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Holden had a similar campaign across the ditch in NZ also called heart racing, sans cooler paint job.
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/case-studies/au-holden-barina-youtube-launch.html
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For those of us in the industry long enough to remember, around 2000 to 2005 digital agencies were doing a lot of experimentation with new technologies for clients. The large “traditional” agencies bleated about the technology being pointless, it being technology for technologies sake, it not having measurable marketing outcomes etc etc.
Now that the traditional agencies are still playing catchup, they are desperately making the mistakes that digital agencies made TEN YEARS AGO.
Innovation is only worthwhile if it makes things better. Tick Clever Buoy (despite any dubious motivations). This Lexus idea is just a stunt, a cheap expensive stunt. This is not innovation.
Ad agencies aren’t great innovators, which is why we partner with people that are.
Now that Cannes judges are trying to be seen as cutting edge the same ideas that were rejected a decade ago by the advertising establishment are now winning metal. It is all a bit of a joke really. This stunt really is a back to the future kind of idea (no pun intended) and seems to indicate that the large agencies are hypocrites and are not interested in doing the hard work, which is actually selling “stuff.”
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For those of you who don’t think this serves any brand purpose, why not think about the dominance Mercedes and BMW have on this market, and how this ad would work up the emotions of someone who may not have previously considered purchasing a Lexus over a BMW or Merc?
Lexus has forever been in the shadows of BMW and Merc when it comes to performance cars; this ad shows that a Lexus is an exciting, exhilarating car while at the same time flexing Lexus’ technological muscle.
For me it’s a great ad and hits the target market incredibly well.
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Same idea by Lexus Italia in 2012 And actually way more fun to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht-_CxBB-kc
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This Lexus work is so much better than the Holden work.
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#Fan
The ‘Germans’ have done this thing before, i.e. communicating how exhilarating it is to drive a performance car…albeit without any of the gimmickry or explanatory voice over
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnfL606ewsU
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Worked on me. I’m fairly average (some would say below at times…) and I’m in the market for a car in that range.
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@ Rob R you obviously have too much money!
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