In a few words, tell us about your role in the creation of this work?
We’re the creatives behind this campaign.
What was the original brief for this campaign?
Cars in the city sit on the driveway or roadside 96% of the time, longing for a good ride.
So we needed to inspire people to break out of their everyday routine and embrace the city. Making more of life using the Lexus CT Hybrid.
What inspired you to approach the campaign in this way?
We’re in our twenties and we both live in London. We should be out there every day exploring and experiencing everything our diverse city has to offer.
But instead we wake up at the same time, ride the same bus, get the same train, see the same faces and then repeat in the evening.
We realised that having a compact car can allow you to be more spontaneous. That’s where ‘say yes to the city’ came from.
We knew the campaign wasn’t just about the car itself, it was about the experience it can offer. And it felt like it needed something different, that’s why we chose to put the car out there in the real world, with real people to show what it can do. And then challenging Time Out’s writers to see how much can be done in four cities in four days felt like the perfect match.
How difficult was it to sell the idea to Lexus?
Lexus has been great. They were just as excited and keen to do something different and put the new Lexus CT Hybrid to the test as we were. It was new territory for us all, but by working together we were able to get to a place that we all felt showed the car at its best – getting people around the city with ease, exploring all those things they plan to, but never actually do.
What was the biggest challenge you faced during the process?
The biggest challenge by far was the logistics of this epic challenge. But travelling to four cities in four days, editing on the road and then delivering work on the same day is definitely a new experience for us both, which is incredibly exciting.
What did you learn from the experience?
Battered Mars bars are grim but Birmingham is actually pretty decent.
What’s the “behind the scenes” story that only you know about – until now?
Saying thanks to an ATM machine is incredibly nice but makes no difference.