A great part of this advert’s success is based on previous
techniques used by many other car manufacturers to make a memorable and
effective advert. For example, using unrelated scenic places, environments or
larger than life situations to symbolize the quality of a car is not unheard
of. Lexus uses these techniques in abundance with the ‘Hoverboard’ and skate
park elements signifying a rebirth of a quirkier and more edgy Lexus brand.
Indeed, just recently Audi’s ‘Ice Hockey’ advert showed a car playing ice
hockey with humans to a similar effect.
Another technique which is firmly resonant in many car adverts
of the past is using powerful, emotive imagery to make the consumer believe
that there is something truly special about their car. Lexus uses the ’Hoverboard’
rider clearing a jump over the Lexus car to symbolize a great technological feat
being achieved, making the consumer inevitably in awe of what has happened.
Again, the Chevy 2014 ‘Maddie’ advert shows a woman dealing with various hardships
in her life but her dog and best friend Maddie is always there to support her.
Chevy uses this situation effectively to draw parallels between the loyalty and
reliability of Maddie and their new car.
Where this advert is predominantly different is how it has
so effectively harnessed the power of social media to make it such a talked
about brand online. The winning formula was when Lexus decided to marry their
brand name with the iconic and legendary Back to the Future ‘Hoverboard’. The
huge fan base of the movie have never been able to stop talking and speculating
about the possible inception of such a device, when Lexus somehow were able to
create and show this technology working, it was almost inevitable that the
internet would blow up with shares, tweets and likes for the campaign, as aided
by displaying the handle ‘#lexushover’ in the advert. Incredibly, mentions of
the Lexus ‘Hoverboard’ spiked to ‘20x’ on twitter and the video advert quickly
amassed 11 million views on Youtube in a matter of days. This also throws open
a whole new argument about the power of viral adverts to a brand compared to
only TV advertising.
Furthermore, the fact that Lexus is competing in such a
concentrated market means it has to stand out, almost show that other car
manufacturers are light years behind in development. They developed the elusive
‘Hoverboard’ and indirectly posed to the consumer the question ‘Which other
manufacturer can boast such an incredible feat of technology?’ Lexus is now
subconsciously a technologically superior car manufacture due to this. This is
an especially important factor in the modern era of car consumers and their car
sales increase of 9.1% from July 2014 to July 2015 may well be due to the
success of this advert.
In fact, Lexus aren’t even making the ‘Hoverboard’ a
commercial venture and are not developing the technology further. This to me
suggests that they have planned and executed beautifully a daring stunt which
will have done wonders for the power and longevity of their brand in the media
against other rival car manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
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