Monty Verdi on Learning to Fly with Lexus

It’s been over a year since CHI London creative director Monty Verdi was approached by agency creatives Dan Bailey and Brad Woolf with a pitch to take a punt at the ‘impossible’ by making a real-life hoverboard for client Lexus.

Today, however, after months of research, development and endless conversations, a campaign for the product has finally launched and it’s a relief. Verdi has led the account through the last three campaigns and this, Lexus SLIDE, is by far “the most challenging” so far, according to the CD.

“The idea has always been to merge imagination with technology to make something amazing happen, and that’s never easy,” he says. “It’s all well and good coming in with a bonkers idea but you have to be able to do it.”

It’s been a year-long process of trying to bring the idea to reality for Verdi and his team and he muses that it’s been a completely different experience to making an ad (though they did that too, with Smuggler and director Henry-Alex Rubin). 

When it comes to pushing boundaries with innovation through technology, the question he continues to hear from clients is always, firstly, whether the idea can be done, and then whether it’s guaranteed to be completed on time and on budget. On this occasion with Lexus, Verdi felt that both parties were on the same level, striving for the same, crazily ambitious goal.  

“The scientists said that on paper it should all be feasible,” he recalls thinking back to the initial stages. “And Lexus loved the idea because it neatly captures what they’re about and their ethos of merging imagination with technology. They’re a great client to work for because they have that ambition to do things.”

Verdi is a big believer in doing. He reveals that when the agency first started working with Lexus they told the client that it needs to be doing “acts not ads” to continue being an innovative brand, and “to do rather than say”. The fourth and latest campaign in the SLIDE hover project is evidence that they’ve remained firmly on board with the philosophy.

“There are a lot of brands that talk about how imaginative they are and how they’re at the cutting edge of technology but we said that the best way to do that is to show it,” explains the creative director. And the mentality was already seeded within the company culture as Verdi reveals that the quote in one of the teaser films - “there is no such thing as impossible. It’s just a matter of figuring out how.” - came from one of the car manufacturer’s chief engineers and was listed in a brand book.

It’s by no means been plain sailing though. He says that on several occasions the project could have died and the campaign has pushed the whole department beyond their limits over the past year. “We’ve had to learn about science, physics, magnetic technology and all sorts. It pushed a lot of people out of their comfort zones as there were so many unknowns.”

Ross McGouran, the professional skater employed to test the product at various stages and front the campaign, also had to go back to basics and re-learn his craft. It wasn’t just a matter of trying to create something that would hover and replicate a skateboard; it had to hold the weight of a person in motion. A custom-built skate park was also key to the campaign’s success and McGouran would be instrumental in the development of the design.

Watch the making of documentary below and click here for more insight into the project.