• by Karl Greenberg , September 6, 2011

In its four-month-old "Engineered Amazing" campaign, Lexus has talked as much about its engineering technology and simulation as about its specific cars. The campaign has featured creative on things like Lexus Hybrid Drive and the Lexus Driving Simulator. Now the company is touting its luminous crash-test cyber model, which allows it to garner thousands more data loci than a traditional test dummy.

The effort launches with a new TV ad demonstrating a two-vehicle collision using points of light to form human features. The spot opens on a pointillist human form comprising spots of light -- the message being that in a traditional crash test dummy, data comes from only 119 foci. The dummy is postured as if sitting in an invisible car driving through a darkened space. Suddenly, careening in the opposite direction is another human form more accurately depicted with bones, muscles and organs because it uses two million points of light, intended to evoke the number of data points Lexus gets. The two forms collide in slo-mo.

Lexus says there will also be an online video that goes into more detail about the use of digital crash modeling using virtual test subjects, and the company is doing its first-ever iAd extension that spotlights Lexus' LFA supercar with digital games for iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone that tests users' reaction time and concentration.

The automaker also says it is partnering with the MSNBC Digital Network for a custom program called "The New Tomorrow," an online hub where one can submit solutions to specific problems. The "Turn What If? Into What Is" program dangles a chance to attend the renowned Startup Weekend, where the person who entered the best idea gets a shot at seeing that concept developed. The winner will be chosen Nov. 17.

The new TV spot will run on cable, cable prime, cable sports and full episode players on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and Hulu. Both "Light" and the behind-the-story video will also be on lexus.com/engineeringamazing and YouTube.com/lexusvehicles.

Print ads are in magazines like Food & Wine, Good, National Geographic, Playbill, Sports Illustrated and Vogue, The New Yorker, Bon Appetit and Wired on Flipboard for the iPad. Online support includes ads in The Daily Beast, Facebook, Pandora, and Twitter, plus sponsorship of YouTube and Glam Media's GlamMobile. The campaign also includes out-of-home installations including 28 permanent boards in 11 markets, and a takeover of the D.C. Gallery Place with three digital units, including a wallscape and interactive kiosks.

Lexus launched the "Engineered Amazing" effort, via AOR TeamOne, El Segundo, Calif. in June. The effort, which is slated to run through the year, launched with an ad touting Lexus' alternative fuels technology by showing the LS 600h hybrid car literally slamming into and crashing through a wall of glass beakers full of different kinds of fuel.