Toyota Corp.’s Lexus shows off their sense of humor the launch of the second season of its Web series “Hudson Valley Ballers” produced by Above Average.
The series, the brainchild of two “Saturday Night Live” writers, airs exclusively on Lexus’ branded content channel L/Studio. Television sponsorship enables brands to highlight their personality and raise their profile in a way that is not overtly branded.
Car comedy
Hudson Valley Ballers is co-created by SNL writers James Anderson and Paula Pell, along with writer Michelle Lawler.
Best friends in real life, Mr. Anderson and Ms. Pell star in the series, which follows their quirky antics as they are semi-fired and decide to open a bed and brunch in upstate New York. Throughout the course of the season, guest stars appear as they stay at The Embarrassed Lamb BnB, including Tina Fey, Alex Karpovsky of “Girls”and Natasha Lyonne, currently appearing in “Orange is the New Black.”
The first season of Hudson Valley Ballers premiered in December 2013, and this current season released four episodes in mid-July with the rest available now.
The automaker uses television as a way to reach consumers of differing interests organically. Lexus is currently in the fifth season of its TV One show, “Verses and Flow.” The last season of the show designed to reach African-American consumers, which aired last summer, featured performances by artists including K. Michelle, Candice Glover and Ruben Studdard. Acting as a producer of content allows a brand to reach consumers in an organic way
The fun starts when the house they have bought for their “Embarrassed Lamb” BandB turns out to have been a crack den. The series features the likes of Lena Dunham, Rachel Dratch (the crack-addled former owner), Alex Karpovsky, and Cecily Strong. The first four videos in the series are live now. The second four come out in August.
For its L/Studio platform, which Lexus started six years ago, the automaker and its AOR, Los Angeles-based Team One, sidestep doing the content creation, instead bringing in outside production houses as partners. In this case there’s a connection with Lorne Michaels as Above Average is a unit of his production shop Broadway Video, which has produced shows like “30Rock,” the current iteration of “The Tonight Show,” and “Late Night With Seth Myers,” among other things.
For L/Studio, which, besides humor, has content around lifestyle, film, science and technology, Lexus partnered with Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network for another content series, “The Sessions Project,” spotlighting Will.i.am.
Said Brian Smith, Lexus VP marketing, “L/Studio offers artists a creative forum for passion projects, and we’re excited to partner with the team behind this series as it is another opportunity to engage and entertain our audience.” L/Studio recently launched “It Got Better,” produced by Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky, (who were behind the L/Studio hit “Web Therapy”) to spotlight LGBT achievers.
