POWER.
POISE.
PERFORMANCE.
Creative Direction · Art Direction · Integrated Campaign · Digital · Social
Acura wanted to connect with active-duty military audiences through qualities they shared with the brand: strength, precision, and control.
At Pace Communications, I developed the visual parallels between human and automotive performance, working with a multidisciplinary team to carry the shared concept across the campaign. We brought military preparation and automotive performance into one story, then carried that relationship across film, social, digital advertising, and email.
01 / THE CHALLENGE
Find a connection specific enough to build on.
The assignment called for a connection beyond familiar images of power.
Military training and the deliberate preparation of a uniform gave us two different expressions of discipline: physical strength and attention to detail. Acura’s combination of performance and refinement gave us a corresponding product story.
That relationship became the basis for Power. Poise. Performance.
02 / THE IDEA
Connect the person and the vehicle.
We built the campaign around three connected ideas:
POWER
Physical strength and automotive capability.
POISE
Preparation, precision, and control.
PERFORMANCE
What those qualities make possible together.
The visual direction moved between exertion and restraint, uniform details and vehicle details, preparation and motion. Those pairings connected the military audience to the Acura TLX Type S and gave the campaign a recognizable language.
03 / BUILDING THE STORY
Give human and machine a shared visual language.
Working from our shared Power. Poise. Performance. concept, I developed the visual parallels between the athlete and the Acura.
I wanted to show the preparation behind physical performance: a person training, refining his technique, and staying ready. That gave us a human counterpart to the car’s readiness for daily performance.
For the gym photography, I shaped the visual approach around red lighting that echoed the car imagery, giving both a sense of controlled intensity. I identified movements that could connect across the two worlds: a turning heavy weight and a turning wheel; battle ropes and a winding road.
Training expressed power, the preparation of dress blues introduced poise, and the Acura brought those qualities together through performance.
Early concept development: pairing human movement with automotive performance.
04 / ADAPTING THE STORY
Keep the connection clear in less time.
The campaign moved from a 33-second hero film into 15-, 11-, and 6-second executions, alongside social formats.
Different durations and crops changed how much of the story we could show. The relationship between person and vehicle remained central, supported by the same three-part language: Power. Poise. Performance.
The shorter formats gave each pairing less time to register, making image selection, pacing, and the offer’s placement especially important.
Vertical sequence linking human and vehicle imagery to the military offer.
05 / EXTENDING THE CAMPAIGN
Carry the idea into the product story.
The same visual language carried into digital advertising and email, where the vehicles and military offer took a more prominent role.
Email extended the approach across Acura’s 2022–2023 lineup, giving individual vehicles more room alongside themes of performance, freedom, and capability.
Together, these applications show how the campaign could accommodate different products and amounts of information while retaining a shared visual direction.
Campaign emails.
Animated advertising sequence.
Display advertising formats.
06 / MY CONTRIBUTION
Turn a shared concept into a visual direction.
My contribution was to make Power. Poise. Performance. visible. I developed the human and automotive parallels, shaped the approach to the gym photography, and helped carry that direction across the campaign with the Pace team.
Lighting, movement, and image pairings gave the work a consistent character while allowing the story to adapt across formats.
ACURA — POWER. POISE. PERFORMANCE.
Creative Director — Nathan Spoor
Copywriter — Zach Godwin
Agency — Pace Communications
NATHAN SPOOR
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
