“April Fools!” For this to work we knew early on that we had to play it straight and fully commit to an idea that people would fall for, ridiculous as it may be. We came up with a new “performance technology,” a Velcro covered driver’s seat, and announced it as we would any other breakthrough. We satirized our own online product videos, even using the same Lexus expert spokesperson. True to Lexus, we even came up with an acronym for the technology: the Variable Load Coupling Rear Orientation system, or the V-LCRO Performance Driver’s Seat. The video also showcased the new, high fashion Velcro suit the driver must wear. Appropriate for an April Fools Day joke, we didn’t break character until the end of the video, where the driver is seen hopelessly stuck to the seat.

Timing is Everything. Content is King. We started by offering advances to media on March 30 to ensure inclusion in March 31 and April 1 stories. On March 31, we announced V-LCRO in a “real” press release and product announcement video on Lexus Newsroom. We simultaneously teased the big reveal with social posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other Lexus-owned social channels. On April 1, we published a major lexus.com homepage update, deployed a dedicated landing page to support the joke, and published the video on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, while promoting the announcement on all Lexus social properties. Overall, we created more than 50 unique pieces of content to support the launch and orchestrated an elaborate release schedule over the course of 48 hours to cut through the chatter and make some real noise.

Success! The reaction was nothing short of astounding. We rapidly managed to engage a huge audience, with a positive response rate above 95%. Better yet, we had fooled many into thinking it was real, making the joke even more topical. Media coverage included multiple national broadcast segments on live morning TV–truly breaking through into the mainstream conversation. In all, we achieved:

355+ million earned media impressions supporting brand equity (including coverage from the Today show, Mashable, BuzzFeed, Men’s Health, Los Angeles Times and TIME magazine online) … 3x the number of impressions of similar PR campaigns

101 unique hits, 5x more than the nearest luxury auto brand’s April Fools’ Day effort

100% positive sentiment/tone in media coverage

1.49M+ total video views

736k social likes, shares and comments

1,772 total mentions generated across social media for a total of 19M potential impressions