Briefed to engage users during a time of high web traffic and low advertising interest, we knew that standard click-through executions weren’t going to solve our problem. To win the engagement battle, our idea would have to be provocative. In the automotive world, clients typically like to see what’s widely referred to as car porn: exposed sheet metal in all of its three-quarter glory. Knowing that, we took the idea of car porn to the next level and, well, made it literal.

For the first time ever, car porn wouldn’t just exist on the screen, but in hotline form, where, with a nod to the seductive 1-900 numbers of advertising’s past, our sexy Acura ILX would come to life and encourage users to pick up their phones to engage in promiscuous conversation about all its voluptuous features.

Already armed with a functioning hotline that we would tease with preroll video, static banners, and click-to-call banners on mobile, we needed to bring the hotline to life digitally. Rather than building a microsite that would only be relevant for the duration our ad buy, we crafted a rich-media banner that turned ESPN.com’s homepage into a call center of sorts.

Once users landed on ESPN.com, they were met with a call-to-action banner that, like the aforementioned creative solutions, encouraged them to phone our hotline. Only this time, the hotline was accessed by expanding our banner where, unlike the phone hotline, the built-in numeric keypad within the banner would function as a content menu that served up everything from tongue-in-cheek feature videos to an Acura dealer locator to a private show from everyone’s favorite ’90s alt-rock legend, Ben Folds.

Although certain functions required a standard development buildout, we couldn’t get too crazy with how we approached our build due to the ad unit’s K-weight restrictions. To circumvent those obstacles and still feature all the requisite digital content, we simply hosted and pulled in all our videos from Acura’s YouTube channel and reskinned Acura’s existing dealer locator to match our campaign’s design aesthetic.

And just like that, the engagement riddle was solved, all with the help of a little sexy, old-school advertising.