If You Drive a Lexus, You’re in Luck (Or At Least the First Level of the Parking Garages in the Arts District)

Posted on June 16th, 2008 3:10pm by Zac Crain
Filed under Advertising, Business, Transportation

This story in yesterday’s DMN caught my eye for no real reason other than I had no interest in watching Shrek for the 100th time. “Arts center copies sports marketing” read the headline on the jump, and that pretty much sums it up: the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts is creating new revenue streams with corporate sponsorships and such. Nothing that revolutionary. But one of the deals the DCPA has struck did catch my eye: a five-year contract with the Dallas-Fort Worth Lexus Dealer Association that calls for Lexus to be the official car of the center and a sponsor of its Broadway series. Again, nothing new. Except this:

In each garage, the first level will be reserved for Lexus drivers, meaning all other patrons – whether they use the valet or circle through the garage to self-park – will have to drive through a floor filled with cars made by the popular luxury brand.

I know I’m fairly down market (and that’s being generous), but has that ever been done before?

[Jump for a pair of updates, including one from the folks over at the DCPA.]

UPDATE: A cool-name-having FBvian e-mails this: “I think Lexus did the same thing with the Rangers a couple of years ago, sorta. If you drove a Lexus, you could drive right on up to the stadium and a valet parker would park it for you gratis. I don’t know if the program is still in place.

And Maria May at the DCPA says: “The idea of reserving the first floor of our parking garage for Lexus vehicles only is still just that–an idea. It is one of many ideas we are considering for how to create the most value in our Lexus partnership, with benefits to both Dallas Center for the Performing Arts patrons and Lexus drivers. The great news about the Lexus sponsorship (and others like it still to come) is that it provides us with budgetary support, allowing us to provide excellent performing arts programs for the entire community.”

I’ll tell FB Nation what I told Maria: Whatever keeps the boat afloat.

15 comments

  1. The Rangers/Lexus deal was signed for 5 years and is still going on. I did it a couple of Sundays ago and was out of the stadium and on I-30 within 15 minutes. It was amazing.

    @ 3:21 pm on June 16, 2008

  2. I like the deal I had at the mansion many years back. If I showed up, my car got parked on the curve by the front door, because I worked my way through law school parking cars. Mercedes, Rolls, Bentley’s and one vw rabbit. I’d walk out without a car ck and got my car first.

    @ 3:21 pm on June 16, 2008

  3. Well, let me clarify… out of my seat and on I-30 within 15 minutes. And most of that was a leisurely stroll to the valet.

    @ 3:23 pm on June 16, 2008

  4. I tried that with Bentleys and my driveway… turned out to be an epic-fail marketing idea however.

    @ 3:25 pm on June 16, 2008

  5. Well played, as always.

    @ 3:29 pm on June 16, 2008

  6. The Rangers still have that and several weeks ago I drove my BMW there and the valet charged me $30 (cuz it wasn’t a Lexus) and when they returned my car to me it had been spray painted with a huge silver star on the entire passenger side of the car. Thank you whoever you are. Bright side is the Rangers insurance company rejected the claim and I am getting to put the repair on the Rangers credit card…best money Hicks has spent in years at the Ballpark as far as I can tell.

    @ 3:41 pm on June 16, 2008

  7. I thought that was your car, Scott. Given how poorly you’ve treated me lately, it seemed like the right thing to do. Go Batfaces!

    @ 3:56 pm on June 16, 2008

  8. Yeah, the Rangers do this too, I never get to take advantage of because when I get dragged to the Rangers stadium the only way I find it bearable is to get sloshed in the Gold Club. I have the Lexus convertible so we always end up taking someone else’s car.

    They did this awhile back at Victory too, after paying the absurdly overpriced valet to go to the absurdly overpriced and overrated ghostbar my valet fee was refunded because I have a Lexus.

    I also seem to remember that Audi sponsor(ed?) the valet for Dallas Symphony and I believe it’s either free or discounted for Audi owners.

    @ 4:16 pm on June 16, 2008

  9. This would be soooo awesome… if I owned a Lexus.

    Since I don’t, I hate this idea.

    @ 4:35 pm on June 16, 2008

  10. Shoot, just chip in with three or four friends on something like this little creampuff in Denton:
    http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?car_id=243561429

    Voila! Frontline parking at all Lexus-sponsored cultural and sporting events!

    @ 5:03 pm on June 16, 2008

  11. They are probably doing this because Lexus thinks it is great marketing. They hope that as peons like yours truly drive on down past all the Lexi that we will look at them longingly and at some point in the future, buy one. I can promise it will have the opposite effect on me–obnoxious marketing tactics that divide arts patrons into “us” and “them”, even if they help the arts, will only make me resentful towards Lexus and less likely to purhcase even a used one.

    @ 5:07 pm on June 16, 2008

  12. http://tinyurl.com/3r584t

    or this lexus conversion kit

    @ 5:13 pm on June 16, 2008

  13. This was done at the Galleria/Westin a few years ago during the Christmas season.

    Don’t know if it is still in effect.

    @ 7:54 pm on June 16, 2008

  14. In one of the garages there will be only one level… to be shared with Booker T. students.

    @ 8:29 pm on June 16, 2008

  15. Just goes to show the arts ARE elitist, yes? If you don’t drive a Lexus, you aren’t good enough for the performing arts.

    @ 5:06 pm on June 17, 2008