Lexus says its use of celebrities in its ad campaigns is helping the brand appeal to more people.

Lexus Europe’s head of brand communications Spiros Fotinos told Marketing Week it is approaching celebrity endorsements in a “completely different way”. 

His comments come in the light of Lexus employing actor Jude Law to promote the RX SUV beginning last year and in the ‘Life the Life RX’ campaign. Lexus has also used music celebrity Will.i.am.

Fotinos told Marketing Week: “We want to find a way to uniquely communicate with people that isn’t just throwing a known face into our advertising as that can be empty.

“With Will we created a one-off light show at an airport in Madrid along with the ad so it’s about finding innovative ways to tell our brand story.

“Jude is all about sophistication and class, and the activity is making a lot of new luxury customers take notice who never thought about Lexus before. Most of our customers on the new models such as the NX are first time Lexus buyers so the strategy is definitely turning people’s heads.

“We look at partnerships in a different way, there has to be room for true collaboration. Jude didn’t just align with our premium values but he also wanted to do the immersive theatre event and that was key.”

Although Lexus will continue to collaborate with Law for the foreseeable future, Fotinos said that in future it isn’t just looking for famous faces and would be open to collaborating with anybody that aligns with its brand values.

Lexus has also endorsed virtual reality after launching an app to replicate driving a Lexus RC F on the Ascari racetrack in Marbella, Spain. It has also brought the technology into its show rooms.

“How many marketing people can raise their hands and, in all honesty, say ‘I have reached maximum efficiency with every channel?’ We want to try things like VR but we cannot lose sight of how to drive people to the brand.

“At the end of the day, it isn’t important that you have VR tech if your website is slow. It is about getting the fundamentals right as it is all too easy to get caught up in this wonderful world of digital marketing.”

Video: The Life RX ad featuring Jude Law

Video: Jude Law at the Lexus immersive cinema experience