Car brand Lexus ran a six-week test to grab the attention of 25- to 34-year-old male users with a campaign for its F-series performance vehicles, using an ad campaign that spanned three platforms in partnership with Microsoft.
Lexus rolled out a series of serialized display and video ads, which were delivered to Web users in a predetermined order.
For example, Lexus would have first showed an ad to a consumer visiting Microsoft’s Web portal, MSN, featuring an extreme sports type jumping out of a plane.
The next time that same consumer visited a Microsoft property, for example on an Xbox, Lexus then served up part two of its ad sequence, featuring that same skydiver now preparing to cliff dive.
Then later, that same consumer might log onto another Microsoft property via a tablet device and see part three of the campaign, which features that skydiving cliff-jumper going off road in a Lexus.
The sequence could work in any order since Microsoft only delivered the campaign to specific users.
“We really wanted to showcase the performance line and this allowed us to feature three different (vehicles) of this line,” said Teri Hill, media director at Lexus. “It’s important for us to tell our story in a logical progression. And this is definitely what the marketplace needs. It’s a true solution.”
“We think this is a differentiator,” said Stephen Kim, Microsoft’s Vice President for Global Agencies & Accounts. “We’ve also seen research that younger Web users are more responsive to these types of ads and almost expect it.”
