Ok, let’s get this out of the way: Mini pioneered interactive smart roadside billboards that “talk to” specific drivers in the UK last year.

And Porsche has launched a billboard in Melbourne that responds to Porsches. Only when its camera detects a Porsche approaching does the billboard display the message, “It’s so easy to pick you out of a crowd” .

M&C Saatchi has launched Lexus’ first Australian interactive smart billboards.

Or as M&C Saatchi executive creative director, Ben Welsh, calls them, “direct messaging on steroids”.

The billboards, developed with APN Outdoor and TMS are an extension of M&C’s This is the New Lexus campaign that launched the NX Crossover model in October. The new model is aimed at a broader, younger, more progressive luxury audience.

The billboards began talking to drivers at key high traffic sites in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth on January 19:

Sydney Domestic Airport, Entry Gantry

Melbourne, Kew Junction

Brisbane, King George Square

Adelaide, 142 Gouger Street

Perth Domestic Airport, Entry Gantry.

They identify the brand, model and colour of passing vehicles to trigger a cheeky, personal message to drivers on the digital display. The messages can also factor in time of day, weather and traffic conditions, so a message might be, “Hey black Merc driver, the heavens have opened. This is the new Lexus NX.”

The activation features more than 80 different configurations of dynamic messaging in each of the five sites.

The billboards all have a series of cameras on high rotation that capture passing traffic. The images are sent to the APN Outdoor Classifier, a bespoke, hi-tech device that matches them to its large database of vehicles makes, models and colours as well as the environmental variables.

Lexus Australia Corporate manager – sales and operations, Adrian Weimers, commented, “Smart out-of-home aligns perfectly to our new messaging. Our job doesn’t simply start with telling everyone ‘This is the New Lexus’. It’s also about how we say it.  Using innovative technology such as this activation helps us to further reinforce that there is a change at Lexus.”

M&C Saatchi executive creative director, Ben Welsh, added, “It’s quite epic to have a 42 square metre billboard having a chat to you as you drive past. It was an ambitious idea that Lexus really went for, brilliantly brought to life by APN Outdoor and TMS.”