Lexus brought Laufey and Miles Davis together on Twitch to drive views 45% above benchmark

Goals

Award-winning composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Laufey is on stage in front of a packed theater and thousands more watching live on Twitch, ready to debut a new song. But first, a confession:

"This next song I'm so excited to perform for you because it's my take on Miles Davis's ‘Blue In Green,’" she begins. "Now, I grew up listening to this song like many other jazz-obsessed kids. So, when I got this opportunity, I was equal parts honored and scared, because how do you make an already perfect piece of music new or unique in some way?"

After a little more banter with the in-person audience and the Twitch viewers, Laufey and her band ease into a velvety version of the Davis standard, complete with her own original lyrics.

Amazon Ads Brand Innovation Lab, Lexus, and agency partner Team One built this moment together as part of "100 Miles," a multi-surface campaign celebrating what would have been Miles Davis' 100th birthday.

"Miles Davis took something classic and reinvented it. Lexus did the same with electricity. When we saw that shared DNA, alongside his centennial, we knew we had a cultural moment worth building around,” said Sara Lara, Senior Manager, Lexus Marketing. “And Laufey gave us the artist who could make it feel alive for a new generation."

That cultural alignment gave the team a clear creative brief. The harder question was where to bring it to life. A luxury automotive brand celebrating a jazz legend's centennial needed a space where audiences would lean in, not scroll past. Twitch, with its live, participatory community, turned out to be exactly that space.

Laufey made her Twitch debut by performing songs from her catalog alongside the world premiere of her reimagined "Blue in Green" for a global live audience.

Approach

Lexus, Team One, and Brand Innovation Lab built "100 Miles" across Twitch, Amazon Music, and Fire TV, placing the campaign wherever audiences already spend their time rather than asking them to come find it.

The creative started with a bold commission: Lexus asked Laufey, a 2x GRAMMY® winning Gen Z jazz artist with more than 25 million followers, to write original lyrics to "Blue in Green," the iconic 1959 instrumental from Davis' Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz album of all time. With full support from the Miles Davis Estate and global independent music company Reservoir, Laufey gave voice to a song that had moved people for decades without ever saying a word. She released the track as an Amazon Music Original.

"We had to appeal to an entirely new generation of drivers. They don’t watch car commercials. They don’t read auto magazines,” said Chris Graves, Chief Creative Officer, Team One. “We had to find them in culture, not media plans.”

On March 27, Laufey made her Twitch debut by performing songs from her catalog alongside the world premiere of her reimagined "Blue in Green" for a global live audience. The stream also served as an intimate in-person gathering of tastemakers and superfans. At the event, Lexus unveiled the Blue In Green Edition RZ, a custom electric vehicle inspired by Davis' composition that weaves subtle nods to his legacy with personal touches from Laufey.

The team extended the campaign into a custom Fire TV and digital landing page where audiences could explore the full collaboration. Each channel played a distinct role, but the story stayed cohesive across all of them.

Results

Audiences showed up, stayed, and participated.

The Twitch live stream on March 27 shattered benchmarks across every dimension. Live views landed 45% above benchmark. Minutes watched reached 191% above benchmark, proving audiences didn't just tune in but stayed for the full experience. The community response stood out most: channel chats hit 2,102% above benchmark, with nearly 5,000 emojis flying during the performance.¹

On Fire TV, the custom landing page set an all-time high for Lexus campaigns, drawing 60% more page views than the average of the prior three Lexus Fire TV campaigns.²

"Miles was always about moving forward. He never believed in standing still or repeating himself," said Vince Wilburn Jr., Miles Davis' nephew and GRAMMY® and Emmy award-winning musician and producer. "It is great to see artists like Laufey engaging with it in a way that feels honest and personal. That's how Miles' music stays fresh and vibrant."

For Lexus, "100 Miles" proved that relevance and resonance drive results as powerfully as reach. As Lara put it: "This is now ingrained in our marketing DNA."

On stage, streaming live to a full audience and viewers around the world on Twitch, Laufey had nothing to worry about. Her take on “Blue in Green” transformed the song for a new generation. And this mattered for Lexus too. Because, when a brand shows up inside culture rather than beside it, audiences don't just notice. They’re moved.

Sources

^1-2 Amazon Internal, 2026