Naveen Soni: “40% Of The Marketing Budgets Were Dedicated To Lexus Life Program”

Naveen Soni, Former President, Lexus India shares his insights in an exclusive interaction with Everything Experiential. Soni talks about Lexus’ marketing budget allocation, 2024 trends, challenges in organising large-scale experiential events and more.

Until recently, you were the President at Lexus India, how much of the marketing fund did the brand allocate towards experiential marketing at the time? How did you justify this cost?

At Lexus India there is an experiential marketing program called “Lexus Life” where personalised brand experiences are curated which would be of interest to the consumers (guests) and approximately 40 per cent of the marketing budgets were dedicated to Lexus Life Program.

The program helps deliver referrals which increase brand presence and thus justify the ROI of the program.

What trends do you foresee taking the forefront in this realm as we head into 2024?

More brands are likely to join this route of experiential marketing as they realise that they are not dealing with a number (consumer) but are dealing with a human being that has triggers which make him or her unique. Thus, the way to the consumers' hearts is to give such unique experiences which money can’t buy.

From a brand perspective, what are some of the challenges when organising large-scale experiential events?

When you are arranging such experiential events then the biggest challenge is how to personalise such events such that each consumer has a very personal take away from such activity. Thus, finding and grouping like-minded and interested consumers becomes the starting point and for that extensive database of your consumers' likes and dislikes which may be much beyond their reasons to engage with the brand becomes an important starting point.

What kind of experiential campaigns can we expect from Lexus this year?

Lexus would keep making luxury personal and thus keep on its journey of delighting its consumers via every touch point. Thus, Lexus Life becomes the core of its brand personification of making luxury personal.