• by Karl Greenberg , February 28, 2011

Lexus this week launches its biggest campaign in years. The effort is the full-court press for the new CT 200h, which Lexus has been teasing for several months now with grassroots efforts and Web programs.

The TV portion of the campaign comprises four TV spots via Lexus' African American and urban market agency Walton Isaacson (Team One handled the media and PR) done almost entirely with computer-generated graphics, giving the creative package the feel of Japanese anime. One of the ads shows a bright red CT 200h being chased through a black-and-white urban landscape by other cars and a helicopter. The vehicle finally rams through a brick wall and into another colorful, futuristic cityscape.

A second ad has a guy in the CT 200h leading a phalanx of five of the five-door vehicles toward a city whose high-rises form an impermeable cliff. As the cars approach, the buildings part -- creating an urban canyon through which they drive, each car finally peeling off in a different direction. "Provocative," says the voiceover. "Unexpected ... defiant, and just what you need to forge your own path." The ads go on to say that at 42mpg, the vehicle is the most fuel-efficient luxury car available.

The campaign also keeps a theme going that the automaker has used for several months now as a central theme in hip events and guerrilla activities: "The darker side of green." The ads break Monday night during prime time, late night, cable and sports. The ads will also run during NCAA Basketball, NHL Hockey and the NFL Draft pre-show, as well as on full-episode players on Hulu, NBC, CBS, Fox and ABC, per the Torrance, Calif.-based automaker.

Also part of the campaign is a program called "Fresh Perspectives," a documentary series featuring six artists, each commissioned to create three original pieces of work within 24 hours and inspired by the themes of Enrich, Escape and Empower.

Lexus is also sole sponsor of USA Network's "Characters Film Series," premiere sponsor of the MOG @ SXSW 2011 event. Lexus is also getting behind iPad content for the launch: Gear Patrol and IndustryAndCollective.com, ABC's full-episode player, iPad versions of Interview's April Issue and Wired's May issue and ESPN The Magazine.

Part of the iPad relationship includes CT-branded content from Vogue, Complex, MSN, USA Network, Current TV, Rolling Stone and Urban Daddy. There will also be home page takeovers on ESPN, Urban Daddy, Pandora and Daily Beast.

Lexus is also running print ads touting the car in magazines like Monocle, Wired, Details, Rolling Stone, Interview, Fader and Flaunt. Some of the print ads direct consumers to free-download music content. Out-of-home elements will be in 11 markets, including what the company says are eco-friendly custom outdoor murals in five urban markets.

Lexus has been going after younger consumers with alternative media deals and an edgier approach -- both to promote the CT 200h as well as its halo car, the LFA. The automaker is backing the former through an exclusive online distribution deal on YouTube for the film "Girl Walks Into a Bar." The film premieres March 11. The deal is the first time a major motion picture was created exclusively for Web distribution. Lexus also became the first automaker to sponsor Pandora's iPad application, using it to host a spot showing the LFA, whose engine is revved up so loud that it shatters a champagne glass.

The company started up the marketing motor for the CT 200h last summer with a global-warming debate series, also called "Darker Side of Green." The events, co-sponsored by Patron tequila, pitted environmentalists against skeptics in a star-studded party atmosphere with moderators like Sarah Silverman, Andy Samberg, Jamie Kennedy, and Tracy Morgan.

Last fall, the "Darker Side" program continued with a video series called "Dark-Casting" in which comic Whitney Cummings interviewed personalities as they drove the hybrid hatchback around six cities like San Francisco, Miami and New Orleans.