As they rebranded the company from an automotive to an experience company, Lexus Automotive (a Toyota company) wanted to continue a dialogue and ongoing relationship with its owners after they had purchased vehicles. To create an emotional bond, Lexus mailed a quarterly high quality and glossy experiential magazine to all owners. The magazine included original content on subjects including style, fine living (food, wine, home), travel, and automobiles. The program produced web, social, video, and app content. All content was created by the team I managed at Story Worldwide, one of the world’s first content marketing agencies.

Lexus magazine was the first global marketing campaign for Lexus, has earned more than 40 prestigious industry awards, and was produced for more than 12 years. The Lexus global content program produced content across 50 countries and was translated and localized into 12 languages.

Read a Lexus content program case study

Program Highlights

Lexus magazine was a content marketing magazine in print and digital format that was funded by the relationship marketing division of Lexus. The program included several types of content that were funded from different sources.

Lexus Covers

Print magazine covers that were the same across every geographic region  

Global content

Content that was consistent with the Lexus brand and was published exactly the same across every region. This content highlighted global brand initiatives, lifestyle articles that were consistent with the Lexus brand, and vehicle content that featured models that were available in every region.

Regional content

Every participating region had a section of their magazine that could be filled with content specific to their regional campaigns, audience, and cultural sensibilities. This content was produced by the regional offices of Story Worldwide and was variable and tailored to the sales targets, vehicle models, and culture of each region.

Key Performance Indicators

Lexus magazine was designed to perform the following functions. As a brand-building and relationship marketing publication, direct purchase was not one of the explicit stated goals but the program metrics demonstrated that the vehicle sales attributed to this program more than covered the return on investment.

• Brand Knowledge – build awareness of the Lexus brand and its products
• Brand Loyalty – enhance customer engagement with the brand
• Brand Advocacy – create brand evangelists and word of mouth
• Brand Community – create an owner community within the brand and create a dialogue between owners and the brand
• Brand Active Response – influence purchase intentions and move hand raisers farther down the purchase funnel

Program Results

Every year, I managed global reader surveys to elicit feedback from readers in all 50 regions. These results were compared to industry benchmarks for similar magazines in the automotive sector.

• More than 75% of readers read more than half of the magazine every issue (Industry benchmark: 58%)
• 72% of readers spent more than 20 minutes with each issue (Industry benchmark: 43%)
• 72% of magazines are shared with others, on average up to two other readers who may not be familiar with the brand
•  78% of readers enjoyed reading the content (Benchmark: 79%)
• 89% kept the magazine for a long period of time (Benchmark: 84%)
• 81% of readers felt valued by Lexus as a result of receiving Lexus magazine (Benchmark: 31%)

Readers responded strongly to the calls to action in the magazine. About 16% of readers purchased a Lexus vehicle as a result of reading Lexus magazine. Other actions attributed to this program included:

• visiting the Lexus Web site (46%)
• engaging others in a conversation about an article (43%)
• conducting a test drive (15%)
• requesting a vehicle brochure (10%)
• or visiting a Lexus dealership (20%)

For more information on the program, download the Lexus program summary by Story Worldwide.