Creating theatre for advertising

At the time, the Lexus showroom in Dubai was the largest Lexus showroom in the world.

The brief as always was simple; provide a three dimensional, spectacular, physical, moving, automated, real life TV advertisement for the sales managers to use to launch any new Lexus (and Toyota) model.

Split over two, roughly 3000 sqft showrooms, one for Lexus, one for Toyota, the launch events had to impress the exclusive VIP guests not only for Dubai but the whole middle east market. The Lexus show room was to be the crème de la crème of the Lexus brand in the region.

So we spun the cars on 30ft motorised dias’. We hid them in an opaque cloud ready to be revealed at the press of a touch screen, we provided the uplifting and exhilarating music back drop. We lit the cars and trucks in halos of fantastic light, and we created a themed lighting canvass of each show room for colour effects and ambience.

And when that was all over, the showroom had to function as – a showroom. Clean, clear, air conditioned and amiable.

The integration of the house systems – music, general showroom lighting, special effects lighting, vapour machines, air conditioning plant, radio controlled touch screens, mechanical lifts, motorised turntables all had to be coordinated for a single magical moment – and then almost as promptly restored back into a selling environment for orders to be taken.

The sales managers had complete control over their selling space and message creativity.

All in all there were approximately 300 different ‘intelligent’ system elements to co ordinate. Engineers from all around the world were brought in to ensure the project was in safe hands. Updates for new features and launches were managed by remote access from our UK office. The sales managers Touch Screens and music selection were all updateable from the UK or head office depending on the technical sophistication of what was to be created.

We believe the Lexus showroom in Dubai remains a jewel in the Lexus distribution group. And long may that continue.