AKQA, working in partnership with Lexus, has launched a new digital creative for the winter season titled Built for Every Kind of Wonder. The holiday film combines emotive storytelling with advanced AI-enabled production techniques, aiming to explore new creative possibilities while maintaining a strong focus on craft and visual quality. The result is a stylised winter world designed to reflect the warmth, imagination and sense of wonder traditionally associated with the festive period.
“We challenged AKQA to explore an AI film for our winter promotions and everyone has been blown away by the quality and craft of what they delivered,” said Rudy Boeman, Lexus brand and communications manager. “The film does a fantastic job of playing to the strengths of AI to create a magical world that aligns perfectly with our ‘Built for Every Kind of Wonder’ positioning. We’re already looking forward to our next project together.”
The project was conceived, developed and produced end-to-end by AKQA, bringing together narrative development, art direction, generative AI asset creation and image-to-video production into a single, integrated workflow. Using WPP Open alongside AKQA’s Virtual Studio, the agency applied an intelligent production approach that blends cinematic techniques with smart technology to efficiently realise the creative vision.
“This work reflects AKQA’s belief that intelligent technology, when guided by strong vision, opens new dimensions for storytelling and creativity,” AKQA Creative Director Jakob Mark of AKQA shared.
The digital narrative centres on a hero film that follows a dreamlike winter journey, guiding viewers through mountain trails, frozen lakes, untouched snow and softly illuminated seasonal scenes. As the film progresses, the environment becomes increasingly surreal, with shimmering frost, subtly transforming landscapes and delicate hints of festive magic, all viewed from within a Lexus moving quietly through the winter night.
The story concludes with a reveal that reframes the experience: the entire journey exists inside a snow globe held by a child travelling with their family in a real Lexus vehicle. The ending underscores the idea that the magic of the season is found in shared moments and personal imagination, reinforcing the campaign’s closing line, Built for every kind of wonder.
Developed in close collaboration with Lexus, the campaign is positioned as an example of how human creativity and AI-driven tools can work together in a complementary way. The film will be distributed across Lexus’ owned digital and social channels throughout the EMEA region during the winter season.
