Infiniti Motors
This is a story of transition. Transition across four timezones, from website maintenance to brand activation and social.
Our account team was stretched across London, Hong Kong, and Toronto with clients in Tokyo, Nashville, and Hong Kong.
Within weeks of coming on board, we were pitching for a new global brand campaign to celebrate their exploration to the Gobi in the footsteps of Roy Chapman Andrews. Within one year on the account we had not only become part of the global advertising agency mix, but launched a whole new business unit devoted to crafting broadcast-quality social content.
Our team tended to fluctuate based on workload, and I oversaw the multi-disciplinary design and creative teams responsible for the updates of the brand website, digital campaigns and social. I sat on the account leadership board and was fortunate to attend NAIAS to oversee brand content production.
Here is a selection of different pieces we worked on.
Design Decoded
Thought leadership/content/video
The head of social and content client approached us with the brief around the idea of people swapping jobs - what if the head of design became an interior designer for a day? Our take on this tapped deeper into the design philosophy behind the brand to reframe this brief into a more thought leadership content series versus a pseudo comedic enterprise that felt off-brand. Our idea was Design Decoded, where the head of design met with contemporaries to discuss their respective disciplines and philosophies so the Infiniti brand ethos was more imbued through the conversation instead of a hard sell against the backdrop of the rear wing of a car.
NAIAS 2019
Product Launch/Social/Real-time content
Every January the North American International Auto Show lands on Detroit. Naturally, car brands from across the globe use it as a platform to unveil their upcoming models but most of the interest is focused on the concept of cars and technology innovation. In 2019 Infiniti used it to make a major statement in their electric story with the debut of the QX Inspiration. Its presence caused quite a stir and Critical Mass was responsible for the real-time coverage of the unveiling as well as the week's activities. This meant we had unprecedented access to the vehicle before to set up the tease phase as well as executing interviews with key personnel like the head of design Karim Habib for later publishing.
Instagram story frames
Project Gobi
Digital Experience/Social/Content
When Critical Mass was briefed in on this we had high hopes due to the great client sell in on the activity; to launch the new QX SUV, a team of the Explorers Club, including head of PR for Infiniti, was following in the footsteps of the great explorer, the inspiration for Indiana Jones, Roy Chapman Andrews - who had also discovered the first dinosaur egg when he first ventured through the Gobi in Mongolia. They wanted a fully integrated digital initiative that delivered on the promise of new discoveries.
What we presented back was a totally comprehensive and cohesive project that brought to life the story, the people and the exploration with content and interactive digital experiences across social and the brand website - The QXEplorer's Club.
Unfortunately, there were serious budget cuts as production was due to start, so our work was downgraded to content based on production footage we received.