Every year, automakers spend millions of dollars on their displays at U.S. auto shows. Lexus came to Mercati with the intention to raise the ROI of their auto shows. They also wished to increase the number of e-mail captures at each show, and create "buzz" for their concept cars.
Mercati's solution to Lexus was to bring the world to each auto show. By using a number of small, high-resolution "lipstick" cameras placed throughout the Lexus display, a live stream of the event was multicasted on the Lexus Web site. Cameras covered individual models as well as concept cars. Views were rotated throughout the day. Live sound was included to give a sense of reality. The Lexus owner base and prospects received e-mail alerts about the streaming videos. Traditional Lexus media ads in other U.S. markets mentioned the "Virtual Auto Show." A CSC campaign was used where prospects SMS'ed short-code "GoShow" in order to obtain a link to where they could download discount tickets. When each show went dark each evening, recordings of the day's show were streamed to the Web site. Viewers could also viewed the videos on Lexus' YouTube channel.
By tracking Web site traffic, Mercati was able to demonstrate that over 350,000 people viewed the North American auto shows, spending an average of nine minutes on the Lexus Web site. Lexus experienced an increase in visitors to their auto show displays, which resulted in a 16% increase in e-mail address captures at the shows. Online viewers were also invited to give their e-mails in exchange for discount tickets to future auto shows. Retail sales tracked back to this incremental number proved to be a 5:1 benefit to cost for Lexus.
