Lexus + Turtl | Case study | Turtl

How Lexus created interactive brochures that saw one KPI increase 80x and slashed production time by two-thirds...

Lexus UK + Turtl: The next generation of automotive brochures

How the marketing team at Lexus UK saw their car configurator CTA jump 80x after switching from PDF to Turtl

Overview: The story in a nutshell

Lexus' car brochures were produced with a print-first mentality for many years, with a PDF version used online.

It became clear that as a digital companion to the brochure, the PDF was in need of a replacement. Prospects and customers found them difficult to read and the layout hard to navigate, especially on mobile devices. Meanwhile, the marketing team that created the brochures was critical of the lack of analytics available for the PDF, as well as its ability to help them hit their KPIs.

When Turtl approached Lexus with an example of one of their brochures redesigned in the Turtl format, it quickly became apparent how a digital-first format could address all of their concerns. After a short trial, the proof was all there in the numbers.

A few key stats:

80x increase in Car Configurator CTA
Production time slashed by two-thirds
Almost half of all readers on mobile

Challenges and objectives: Finding an authentic digital experience

What's possible when you leave the PDF behind?

Lexus really prides itself in brand experience, so we knew we needed to modernize our digital brochure experience. Then Turtl came along with this modern, digital format that's grounded in reader psychology and UX.

Marian Cole, Brand Marketing Specialist, Lexus UK

THE CHALLENGE

Repackaging

the brochure

After Marian Cole, Brand Marketing Specialist at Lexus UK, was presented with an example of what the brochures could look like aesthetically in Turtl, she still had four major objectives for the digital format:

1. Improved user journey

Can the digital brochures improve our ability to move prospects to the website?

2. Mobile-friendly format

How do we address the complaints that our brochures are painful to read on mobile?

3. More dynamic materials

By moving away from the PDF, will we be able to feature more multimedia elements?

4. Analytics that matter

Is all our hard work even worth it? Can we find analytics that actually tell us something meaningful?

Solution: Enter the digital age

How Turtl's features help Lexus level up their materials

THE SOLUTION:

Prioritizing reader experience

Say goodbye to generic CTAs

The success of the marketing team at Lexus is measured on CTAs within the brochures. In the old version, the CTAs were limited and appeared on a static sidebar throughout the PDF.

"The way that Turtl documents are structured lets people navigate more autonomously to what they actually care about," explains Marian. "This has allowed us to create really specific CTAs that give them the next obvious step in their journey based exactly on what they've chosen to read."

A modern format for the modern reader

Lexus hosts a lot of experiential events where prospects can speak with brand ambassadors about the cars. The ambassador then sends the PDF brochures to them as follow-up.

However, they'd received a lot of negative feedback that the PDF brochures were impossible to read on mobile without excessive zooming and scrolling. By contrast, the Turtl format automatically adjusts its layout to any device and the creator of the brochures can preview mobile layouts in the Turtl Editor.

Multimedia for a full-throttle experience

"We really wanted our brochures to provide the same experience you would expect from Lexus," says Marian. "Reading about a car in a PDF document just doesn't do that."

Turtl's format heavily encourages the use of visuals, requiring imagery or video on each chapter cover at a minimum. It also offers a range of interactive widgets like charts and polls to create a more dynamic reader experience that makes a traditionally one-way channel more conversational.

Live reader analytics for constant iteration

One of Marian's biggest criticisms of the PDF was the lack of analytics. Without that insight, she had no way of seeing how people were engaging with the report beyond simple download and click metrics.

"Turtl's analytics show us exactly what's working and what isn't," explains Marian. "The fact that you can see how each individual section is performing helps us spot areas for improvement so we're continuously producing better brochures.

And the brochures were just the beginning...

After seeing the results of implementing Turtl for the original use cases of brochures and price lists, it quickly became clear that Lexus could do so much more with the power of Turtl. "A lightbulb moment was when we began using Turtl for dealership communications. At last we knew what content was being read and what wasn't." New initiatives were developed with Turtl:

Turtl has been an absolute game-changer.

Matt Healey, Account Director, LCMS / TMW - a Turtl Solution Partner

Turtl's personalization capability will enable us to provide dealers with locally-tailored prospecting content that previously we thought we were a million miles from.

Matt Healey, Account Director,
LCMS / TMW

Campaign briefings for dealerships
New product launch guides
Social media best practice guides
Additional accessory brochures and price lists
Quarterly marketing guides for dealerships

Results: Content that pushes the needle

How Lexus saw an 80-fold increase in engagement with one of their most important CTAs

RESULTS

The next generation

Ultimately, the team at Lexus wanted to see their brochures have a bigger impact on reader behavior, and provide more value to dealerships. To do this, they measured how many readers were progressing from the brochures to a key page on their website. This CTA engagement was their main KPI. Here's what happened when they moved away from the PDF to Turtl's unique interactive format:

80x

more journeys to the car configurator tool

37%

more journeys to the "View Offers" page

The fact that Turtl increased one of our most important KPIs 80 times says it all really. Switching to their interactive format has made a clear impact on how we're able to connect with readers and help them to the next stage of their customer journey.

Marian Cole, Brand Marketing Specialist, Lexus UK

More performance metrics:

49% of readers were mobile users

Bounce rate of only 11%

Production time down 70%

A streamlined workflow for huge time savings

When the brochure was produced in PDF, it would usually take an average of 27 hours end-to-end. When they trialed their first brochure in Turtl, it took only 8 hours to complete, and that included training time for Lexus' agency partner and in-house team. This has saved 19 hours of content creation time.

"Not only is the tool really easy to pick up, but the customer success team at Turtl has been really great at training us and our agencies, as well as answering any questions we have as we work on the brochures," says Marian.

It's not just the product on offer here, the customer success team at Turtl are probably the most engaged and supportive I've ever seen from a tech vendor. They're really hands on.

Marian Cole, Brand Marketing Specialist, Lexus UK

Content designed for iteration

The Analytics Engine in Turtl uncovers content insights that are not possible with the PDF. The team at Lexus can now monitor granular interactions with the report and drill down into the performance of each section and the journeys of individual readers. They can then make live edits to the brochures that will appear in the active version without any need to send out a new brochure.

"When legislation changes or there's a new government announcement, we used to have to upload a live PDF onto our system, make comments on what needs to change, then send it to design for review," Marian explains. "That would take a few days, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it's a long time for information to be wrong. Now we have Turtl, we can make those changes within hours of that announcement and feel confident that the most updated version is the only version available."