LExus case study

content strategy and design

Lexus had a simple ask: Make Quartz readers feel something. Plus high time spent and engagement. Quartz Creative developed an immersive interactive that simulates three key association emotions, provided by Lexus, and then explores the science fueling them. 

I was the creative director, top editor, and wrote all microcopy for this campaign, leading a team of writers, designers, engineers, and producers.

The Lexus interactive had an average time spent of 2:22, performed 7.2x the Quartz engagement rate benchmark, and was nominated for a Webby.

We wanted the landing page to be direct: Ask a blunt, attention-grabbing question and provide three distinct and succinct answers. Immediately after a user clicks into their desired emotion, the piece delivers a digital experience that makes them feel it.

The Joy panel (above) creates a space for digital doodling. To reinforce that this was a blank canvas, we labeled the different shape options as “brushes”. Understanding that the average user would not spend long on each panel, we directed them to “drag” their mouse or finger to get the full effect of each brush almost blooming in response to the their movement.

Once the user scrolls down, the headline echoes back their experience and provides a natural segue into the article.

To drive traffic back to Lexus, each panel concludes with a call to action. The CTA (above) invokes Lexus’ color palette as a subtle connection to the experience. The car is revealed only when users hover over the CTA box to soften the sell while still showing the goods.

This approach earned a click-through rate 5.3x the Quartz benchmark.