Audi
Audi was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. I worked on it for a number of years and we more than tripled the brand’s sales and won them the once coveted, now defunct, Marketing Magazine Marketer of the Year. We won the agency of the year award that year too.
It was a time of immense innovation and design in the vehicles, one we were challenged to match every day. It taught me about pushing the work and always making it better, challenging my colleagues and being challenged, how the whole agency works in the service of our client’s creative output.
I also learned the value of working for (and maybe being one day) an entrepreneur.
I’ve grabbed what still exists of the work out there, and am sharing as much as I can find. There’s a great story behind every piece.
Nothing sticks like quattro.
Audi wanted to show up at the Toronto International Film Festival, but GM was the official sponsor. So to show off that “nothing sticks like quattro,” we attached rare earth magnets to Audi vehicles, and stuck them to metal surfaces around the film festival headquarters. It was a surprise and delight moment for festival goers, and the hundreds of thousands of people who saw the activation documented online.
The R8 Spyder launch had a small allocation in Canada, and a small budget to support it. We took over a key billboard (Gardiner & the DVP), and gave potential Audi customers an aspirational - and inspirational - message to support not just the car but the whole brand.
This was one of my favourite campaigns ever. An October surprise, where we ran branded snowplows all over the GTA, shocking them into considering winter driving months before it usually arrives. (excuse the resolution, it was a few years ago)
For the launch of the Audi Q5, we pointed out all of the boring, boxy competitors on the market. Anywhere typical car advertising showed up, we were there taking shots at the cars that were ruining cars.
We actually built the 18-foot-long cardboard boxes, used them for print shoots, installations, and even filmed a parody commercial of a local used car dealership.
R8s were hard to get and expensive. So we made car covers for BMW and Mercedes vehicles, and garage door covers for everyone, that allowed people to share their desire.
Tunnel
One more R8 thing. We got a budget when the R8 came out to produce a TV spot. It had to showcase the R8, but it had to be for the brand. Our strategy was to show how the rest of the Audi line-up was born from the same DNA. While the R8 might be the leader, the other models had the same grace, design, and power.