THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!

Industry

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Strategy & Engagement

See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Brand Partnership See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Call to Action See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Community Management See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Creative Use of Technology See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> CTV/OTT See previous winners and honorees for Insights and Trends here.</a> <a href=https://shortyawards.com/17th/"https://shortyawards.com/category/16th/data-visualization">See previous winners and honorees for Data Visualization here.</a>"> Data & Insights See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Earned Media See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Event & Experiential See previous winners and honorees here.</a>""> Gamification See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Humor See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Innovative Media Buying Strategy See previous winners and honorees here.</a>""> Integration with Traditional Media See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Internal Communications See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> LGBTQ Community Engagement See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Micro-Influencer Strategy See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Multicultural Community Engagement See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Music & Dance See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> On a Shoestring See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Organic Promotion See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Paid & Amplification See previous winner and honorees here.</a>"> Physical and Digital Convergence See previous winner and honorees here.</a>"> Public Service Announcement See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Real Time Response See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> SEO & SEM See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Social Commerce See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Storytelling

A New Chapter In Luxury - The Reveal of the All-New INFINITI QX80

Finalist in Event & Experiential

Entered in Brand Awareness Campaign

Objective

INFINITI was set to reveal an all-new and completely reimagined version of its biggest, most luxurious, most iconic flagship SUV - the QX80. With the reveal of a vehicle that represented the brand’s rich, storied history in Japanese luxury and artistry, this was much bigger than just bringing another new car into the world; it was a watershed moment in INFINITI’s heritage, and more importantly, its future—a truly make-or-break chapter for the brand.

With the luxury automotive space only getting more competitive and customers demanding more of the best and newest features for their money, INFINITI put everything it had and more into the all-new QX80, equipping it with the most segment-first features in the brand’s history. But with more premium offerings also came a significantly higher price tag – with the top trim 2025 QX80 costing almost $25k more than the top trim 2024 QX80. But price was a barrier INFINITI was confident could be overcome by proving to customers just how advanced and premium the QX80’s features truly are.

Strategy

Pulling a sheet off the all-new QX80 wasn’t enough. People needed first-hand, hands-on experience with the suite of features that truly set the QX80 apart from its peers.

The QX80 could have been simply revealed at the 2025 New York International Auto Show, but everyone was revealing something new at the auto show this year. The QX80 couldn’t get lost in the headlines. It demanded its own stage, its own spotlight, and its own audience who could explore the vehicle up close.

So INFINITI found a much more exclusive part of NYC to reveal the QX80 - 100 stories above Manhattan on the observation deck of The Edge at Hudson Yards, one week ahead of the auto show at an invite-only reveal party.

It was the first time a vehicle had ever been revealed at this height, and just one of many firsts guests were treated to that evening.

Just one problem. How do you get hundreds of guests to explore features when you only have one QX80 on hand?

We created three immersive, artistic installations - SEE, HEAR, and FEEL - inspired by the QX80’s most impressive and visceral features.

FEEL highlighted QX80’s innovative Biometric Cooling System. Thermal imaging displayed a heat map of guests on a giant LED screen. As guests stood before the screen, the custom climate system automatically cooled guests with fans based on their actual body temperature.

With new audio partners Klipsch, the QX80 offers individual audio zone technology, isolating sound via directional speakers built into the front row driver and passenger seats. With our HEAR installation, we invited guests three at a time to step into separate audio pods, with each zone playing a different track isolated for their ears only. As guests rotated from zone to zone, the individual tracks coalesced into one funky, fully composed song.

And lastly, SEE brought the QX80’s 64-color ambient lighting themes to life in a roomful of kinetic mirrors that reacted to guests’ every body movement in a stunning display of reflected color and light.

Together, our artful, feature-inspired installations elevated luxury to a whole new level by immersing guests into the wonderfully welcoming world of the all-new QX80.

Results

It was a truly memorable and shareable moment, as evidenced by the engagement the experiences garnered on social, with our real-time reveal IG story seeing a +150% increase in comment rates during the livestream and a +341% increase in share rate vs. our always-on benchmarks.

Key fashion and lifestyle influencers like Andreas Verrios (329K Instagram +2.2M TikTok Followers) and Laura & Nicholas (602K Instagram + 290.5K TikTok Followers) were also on hand to share content live as they engaged with the experiences.

Even celebs like John Batiste and Erin Andrews stopped by to help introduce the QX80 to the world and experience the installations for themselves.

By revealing all-new features in an all-new way, the QX80 stole the 2025 New York Auto Show before it even started.

Media

Video for A New Chapter In Luxury - The Reveal of the All-New INFINITI QX80

Entrant Company / Organization Name

PUBLICIS Q at Razorfish, INFINITI USA

Entry Credits