LOS ANGELES To craft launch ads for the Infiniti G Coupe, Dennis Lim looked to Nissan's engineers and designers for inspiration.
"We knew we'd want to capture acceleration and the sensuous design of the car," said Lim, the lead cd on Ininiti at TBWA\Chiat\Day.
The 330-horsepower sports car premieres with a lavish print push and a 30-second TV spot, along with a video clip running exclusively on the G Coupe microsite.
Using a red silk background, a leitmotif of the previous Infiniti campaign, the broadcast spot, "Power," reveals a road amid a lush green field as the G Coupe seems to materialize out of undulating streaks of light. The voiceover says, "It turns every drop of fuel into pure adrenaline."
The "Steering" spot running on the microsite emphasizes "agility captured," in the words of the voiceover, "by four wheels that steer so that cornering is more precise." The wheels of the G Coupe seem to radiate concentric circles of light.
"The original idea was to just show the car, but we migrated to showing the car move," said Lim, who added that the art direction of the television spot was keyed to the use of rich colorful fields in Japanese movies.
Lim said the creative team tested a car that had a shade of plum, but it wasn't imaging as well as the silver model featured in all the print and broadcast executions. The spots were directed by Tarsem through @radicalmedia, Los Angeles. Lim worked with Bob Rayburn (art) and Patrick Condo (copy) as well as designer Erik Miller on the entire campaign.
Carl Phillips, Infiniti senior manager of marketing communications, Nashville, Tenn., said that the strategic approach differs from previous campaigns because the company will also target women. "It's not about repositioning but communicating in their [women's] language," he said.
Nissan spent $250 million advertising Infiniti last year and $110 million through June 2007, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus.