Case study: Lotus: Driving Tomorrow

Lotus, the supreme British sports car brand, wanted to communicate their strategy and plans for the business and their sector leading products to the world at large. Initially focused on automotive journalists and influencer's, the messages also needed to be heard by the dedicated Lotus drivers and owners around the world and the public at large. Historically this would have been done via a live event but with the global pandemic they had to find another way.

Lotus proposed a film-based solution and together we settled on a 45 minute documentary with high production values that represented the dynamism and premium brand values of the client. The film was constructed from focused shorter elements enabling the audience to consume the most relevant content for them. This would then be broadcast via their own media centre.

Our creative approach made a significant difference – rather than a standard filmed presentation we wanted to take the opportunity to place the audience within the client’s environment, making them feel they were engaging directly with the key people at Lotus.

To achieve this level of audience immersion, we constructed a heavily stylized documentary that was up close, revealing and personal, while still highlighting Lotus’s important values of innovation and technical brilliance through sophisticated motion graphics, lighting, design, editing and camera work.

The film has been a game-changing success. The engagement measured through the website analytics vastly out-performed expectations – driving results in both communications and potential business outcome. The experience was summed up by Steve Cropley in Autocar*:

‘Highlight of the week for me was Lotus’s fascinating ‘Driving Tomorrow' presentation, which came remotely from Hethel and fleshed out some of the 73-year-old company’s plans for the next eight years. This was a Lotus I’ve never known before: confident, decisive, financially muscular, with a carefully chosen professional team making plans that fearlessly eye the long term and talking constantly about the importance of the customer’s experience.’