The Lexus IS is sporty and stylish. Some might even say it’s hot. (Yup, we went there.) We wanted to introduce the world to the *hottest* Lexus IS ever. So, we decided to partner with hot sauce manufacturer Huy Fong Foods to create the Sriracha IS. Through cheeky customizations (temperature settings that go from cold to Sriracha, a green-tipped grille to mimic the green cap of the bottle, rooster accents in the ‘cock’pit, a key fob that locks, unlocks and dispenses Sriracha), we wanted to show off the features of the Lexus IS to a crowd who, otherwise, wouldn’t be seeking them out. And become a part of pop culture conversations Lexus had never been a part of.

We prepared a roll-out plan and all assets (multimedia news release, photos, pitches) in about 3.5 weeks. We worked with David Tran, the notoriously media-shy founder of Huy Fung Foods to secure a quote and his blessing of the press release along with coordinating media outreach efforts with his in-house PR team. Media invites to the Lexus booth at the auto show began a week before the first press day to maximize launch day coverage. Heavy pitching occurred on and after the 11/16 launch day. Interviews were scheduled at the Lexus booth with outlets like Gear Patrol and EATER – an outlet that wouldn’t normally attend an auto show but came specifically to film the car. That was the real coup of the car and the pitch: being picked up by design, food, humor, lifestyle, news, style and automotive publications. All because this one car appealed to so many interests.

Lexus became a part of cultural conversations it hadn’t been in before. The Sriracha IS piqued the interest of media outlets all over the world. It was organically picked up by design, food, humor, lifestyle, mass news, trend-watching and automotive publications because this one car appealed to all those interests.

The Lexus Sriracha IS earned 61M social impressions, 301M PR media impressions, and over 9M organic impressions.

By tapping into a cultural phenomenon, our social posts spread rapidly, and the car trended on Facebook for 24 hours. Our paid social posts were shared 37K times, received 107K reactions, and earned 5.5M views.

A Millward Brown study showed that Sriracha IS aided awareness of the Lexus IS by 10%. Brand favorability rose 8%. And most importantly, IS sales rose and accounted for 10.5% of all sales in that segment, an increase of 3%.