Hasta La Creative!

Team One has launched the annual “December to Remember” holiday sales event for Lexus with a new integrated campaign built around three broadcast spots.

In each of the 30-second spots parents present a different explanation for how exactly Santa manages to deliver a luxury sedan. The parents in “Christmas Train” explain how an iconic holiday train made its way to their driveway, where elves helped unload it right to the driveway — complete with Lexus’ signature red bow. In “Magic Box,” the car magically self-assembles from a small box Santa places in the driveway, while in “Teleporter” it is beamed in directly from the North Pole.

The broadcast spots begin airing today on network and cable television, with “Christmas Train” also being translated for Hispanic and Asian-American markets. Additionally, the campaign is supported by print and OOH executions, as well as a digital partnership with The Weather Channel which will “provide targeted December Sales Event ads in real time based on local weather conditions.”

“The holidays are a time of year when people indulge their imaginations and share stories filled with magic and wonder,” said Brian Smith, Lexus vice president of marketing. “This year’s holiday campaign celebrates the tradition of storytelling and reminds us that children aren’t the only ones who get to have fun this time of year.” (more…)

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Team One runs through a list sins encouraged by the Lexus F performance line in their new spot, “Temptation.”

According to the 60-second spot, the Lexus F, “Provokes lust, unleashes wrath, incites envy, and elicits pride.” Absent are two of my personal favorites, sloth and gluttony, which Team One decided (understandably) don’t really do much to sell luxury performance vehicles. Greed is skipped over because they’re trying to get people to shell out a lot of money for a car here.

The spot, slickly produced by RSA, does a better job of tying the vehicle to certain sins than others. Lust is embodied by a couple making out in the rain, after which the Lexus F happens to exit a garage, not doing much to show how it “provokes lust.” Oh wait, it’s because the guy stops making out for a second to check out the Lexus F. Ugh. The rest of the sins are dealt with a bit better, with “unleashes wrath” tied not to actual anger but the car’s power, and envy and pride dealt with in more obvious ways. Perhaps most importantly, “Temptation” makes the Lexus F look good, even if its concluding line, “Temptation comes in many heart-pounding forms, but only one letter” is a bit weak. Stick around for credits after the jump. continued…

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It’s amazing how many automakers still rely on the old ad formula: shiny spinning wheels, long remote, wooded roads, sun glinting off an immaculate vehicle, and a dramatic soundtrack. Some, of course, take the innovative route with ads like Fiat’s In da (mother)hood and Landrover’s Roam Free.

Lexus falls halfway on the innovation scale with #LexusInstafilm, in which they gathered 200 Instagrammers to capture the 2014 Lexus IS F Sport in all its filtered glory, then compiled the images to create a stop-motion-y film. The collaboration turns out to be beautiful, and the people behind it good-natured. A burly bearded man asks, “How’s my hair?” And a fellow Instagrammer fixes it for him. Doesn’t get much cuter than that.

While it probably won’t go viral since the focus of the feature is a character-less car, the idea of combining controlled creativity, new technology, and enthusiastic people is a winning one. Hopefully we’ll see this kind of spot again. To check out each frame of the film, go to http://instagram.com/lexusinstafilm.

Credits after the jump

continued…

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