This work was created to stand next to the best factual entertainment on streaming platforms. This is because our audience is spending more and more time there.

We had to create something entertaining for the platforms to take, yet still relevant and worthwhile for our client. This meant it couldn’t be a Lexus story others were a part of, it had to be a bigger cultural story that Lexus play a relevant role within. Another challenge was finding a narrative that worked within 60 minutes for platforms but could also be 60,000 hours long online to satisfy the original idea.

Craftsmanship is the heartbeat of luxury brands. Since its inception in 1989 Lexus has used Takumi Craftsmanship to create better quality, more highly crafted cars. This can be seen in every single vehicle from the CT to the LS. There’s nothing crafted like a Lexus. Our brief was to bring this to life in an original and exciting way.

Many brands have told stories about what craftsmanship looks like, but few explain why they put such value on craftsmanship or about the people that dedicate their life to it.

The lens we chose to do it was through a group of master craftsman that Lexus call Takumi. We were intrigued by their mindset, dedication, and their constant desire for self-improvement. At this moment in time, where Japan is on the rise, it also felt culturally rich to tell stories which brought to life this uniquely Japanese idea.

It takes 10,000 hours of practice for humans to become expert. In Japan, there are craftspeople called Takumi who go far beyond this. Devoting 60,000 hours to their craft, a life of repetition and no shortcuts. Most of us will never reach such heights. But what about machines? A.I. is no longer science fiction; it’s in our household appliances, in our phones. By 2050 machines will outperform humans in virtually every field. Will human craft disappear as A.I. reaches beyond our limits? Directed by Clay Jeter of Netflix series Chef’s Table and narrated by Neil MacGregor, historian, former Director of the British Museum. The 60,000 hour version film sits within an interactive player, allowing viewers to fast forward thousands of hours of Takumi dedication. A 54 minute edit premiered at DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary film festival. It’s available to view on Amazon Prime, iTunes, Google Play in 57 markets

The first part of the strategy was about connecting to audiences who we’re told ignore advertising. Platforms like Facebook tell us that the only effective way of creating interest is to land your point in the first few seconds or to tell an increasingly shorter story.

Yet these people are binge watching content on streaming platforms like Amazon Prime. We set out to create a piece of entertainment that didn’t abide by 7 second rules, but tapped into our audiences desire for deeper stories, creating film to live endlessly on streaming platforms.

Part two of the strategy involved deciding on the length and placement of Lexus content within the documentary. There are some examples out there already which are poor attempts at creating entertainment by brands. We chose to craft a story which culminated with Lexus, befitting of a brand who are at the frontline of craft and AI.

For this project we embraced a traditional documentary approach - finding the story, and allowing it to evolve through research, the shoot and the edit. Post-production maintained a natural and authentic treatment of the characters through grade, whilst sound design enhanced the wild recordings. This created multiple moods per character and was matched with a bespoke composition that progressed the flow of the narrative and developed the emotional resonance of the story of each Takumi.

The Lexus Takumi documentary launched in November 2018. Since then the documentary has been chosen as part of DOC NYC’s Film festival official selection. DOC NYC is the US’ Largest Documentary Film Festival.

In addition to this the film has been picked up by Amazon Prime, Apple iTunes, and Google Play which will begin streaming from March 19th. This has enabled us to create a global distribution platform across 57 markets, reaching every one of Lexus key markets – something we set out to do in the initial stages of strategy.

Beyond this the film has gained substantial industry coverage and has excited creative publications about the opportunity around longer-form content for brands.