Globally, Lexus is a leading luxury car manufacturer. However, in Australia it has struggled to gain market share. Put simply, for many Australians, if it isn’t European it isn’t a luxury brand.

In recent years Lexus has launched some remarkable performance vehicles under its ‘F Division’ badge, however they haven’t captured the imagination of the public in the way Mercedes AMG, BMW M and Audi RS vehicles do.

A crucial difference of the F range is that Lexus sees motorsport as much more than pushing the limits of speed and specification. They are ingredients to achieve one goal: creating an emotional and physical connection between car and driver.

Our brief had two objectives. One; use F to create a halo effect on sales across the range. Two; bring the F philosophy to life while building a reputation for Lexus performance vehicles - one powerful enough to force reappraisal over time.

By utilising wireless heart monitoring technology, we were able to connect and display the driver’s heart rate to the electroluminescent paint on outside of the car in real time. An animation sequence was designed using a microcontroller board via a custom shield that controlled the sequence and managed power. With the compatible heartbeat monitor, the driver’s BPM was sent to the microcontroller for animation.

By leveraging these breakthrough technologies, we had created the world’s first car with a heartbeat.

This physical digital product was the centrepiece of a PR and partnership push that kicked off in July, 2015. It launched through highly-focused outreach to the most influential technology, design, and global lifestyle journalists. As the project built momentum, focused on views and shares of the high-octane film, Lexus then accelerated its reach to potential buyers through a targeted creative partnership with News Corp.

The total reach was over 110 million media