Lexus Jumps Into Super Bowl Advertising with First-Ever TV Spot +VIDEO

Lexus to Debut Its First Super Bowl Commercial

TORRANCE, CA - January 17, 2012: Advertising on the annual Super Bowl broadcast is big marketing business. It's big not just because of the size of the football game's audience, but because the hype and visibility of the TV spots that air during the show often generates far more product awareness and impact than is garnered through the conventional airing of the short 15, 30, or 60-seconds of the commercial. As most veteran Super Bowl watchers can tell you, dull Super Bowl games have been saved by brilliant advertiser commercials, and this alone can result in enormous "free" airing of the commercials during the almost endless post-game analysis of the Super Bowl commercials.

Accordingly, Super Bowl advertisers often go to great lengths to entice media outlets into providing coverage of the marketing efforts. Two recent campaigns are stellar examples:

The hoopla surrounding the media efforts to publicize an advertiser's Super Bowl appearance can also get pretty outrageous, as evidenced by Go Daddy's "banned commercials" of the past couple of years. Whether the spots were truly banned for their racy content or not, the added commotion alone gave Go Daddy their money’s worth

Kia's "Hamsters" commercials used during the past couple of years are also an excellent example of how Super Bowl ads have been also able to take on a life of their own and how they delivered extra marketing mileage for the Korean automaker because of the tremendous international creative awards success that their commercials achieved.

And so, it is with all of the foregoing that Lexus has decided to jump on the band wagon to help promote their exciting new models in the hope of being one of the fastest-growing luxury brands this year.

To kick off the product onslaught, the company will debut its first-ever Super Bowl commercial for Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday, February 5 on NBC.

“This is a big year for Lexus as we introduce nine new or updated models, and the Super Bowl provides us with an equally big opportunity to reach a highly engaged audience of 50 million people,” said Brian Smith, Lexus vice president of marketing. “The star of our commercial is the all-new 2013 GS which launches in February and kicks off a pivotal era for the Lexus brand. The spot also will convey that even more products are waiting in the wings and are anxious to hit the road.”

The :30 second commercial is scheduled to run during the first half of Super Bowl XLVI. A :15 second sneak-peek of the commercial can be seen today on Lexus social media channels, including Facebook.com/Lexus and YouTube.com/Lexus. The ads were created by Attik, a Lexus roster agency, while the overall GS launch advertising is headed by Lexus’ agency of record, Team One.

Watch a sneak peek of the Lexus TV commercial

Leading up to its Super Bowl commercial, Lexus is embarking on a unique social media activation called TweetDrive Engineered by Lexus. It is a socially-fueled game engaging football fans during the professional football playoffs. TweetDrive Engineered by Lexus airs live on NBCSports.com and offers fans the opportunity to earn yardage, move their “team” down the field and score a touchdown during the actual playoff games and throughout the week.

“TweetDrive Engineered by Lexus offers a unique way to challenge sports fans to put their knowledge about football and social media to the test,” said Brian Smith, Lexus vice president of marketing. “There is a lot of excitement about football this time of year and Lexus is pleased to join in the action through this program. It’s also a great way to build on the anticipation created by our upcoming Super Bowl ad, a first for Lexus.”

The object of the game is to gain enough yards to score a touchdown. Yardage is accumulated by tweeting the correct answers to a mix of trivia and predictive gaming questions using the #LexusTweetDrive hash tag. For each playoff game a fan plays TweetDrive, they are entered to win the grand prize -- a trip for two to an NBC Sports Premium Event.* To participate, fans just need to register at NBCSports.com and watch for tweets from @Lexus using #LexusTweetDrive during playoff games (predictive gaming questions) and throughout the week (trivia questions) through January 22, 2012.

The game will be promoted via NBC Sports, and Lexus social media outlets and NBCSports.com throughout the playoffs. For more information and to register, visit www.NBCSports.com.