Audi: The Art of the Heist
Watch the campaign film for more info (05:03)
Challenge. In the spring of 2005, Audi of America launched the A3, a premium compact which was a new category of car in the North American market. It was loaded with innovations and retailed at a higher-than-expected price. On top of that, other luxury car companies who had attempted this before had failed. Audi faced a significant challenge.
Target. Highly affluent ($150K+), stylish, tech-savvy, web-addicted young men (ages 25-34) who are extremely active and mobile
Solution. “The Art of the Heist” embraced the target audience’s need of control over their environment and invited them into an immersive 24-hour-a-day alternate reality. This story blurred fact and fiction by concocting a mysterious storyline that involved consumers in the recovery of an A3 stolen from AudiÕs Park Avenue headquarters in New York City.
At the heart of the narrative were six new A3s containing coded plans for the largest art heist in history; however, one car contained the key to decrypting the information hidden in all the others, and the mystery surrounding the “heist” unfolded in real time over three months across the country. The Heists final chapter was played out in front of a live audience at the Viceroy Hotel in Los Angeles, where we finally discovered who the real villain was.
Media. Over the course of 90 days, consumers engage with the immersive entertainment experience through:
Television
Newspapers
Outdoor
Commuter Rail
Magazines
Websites
Blogs
Live Events
Email
Podcasts
Films
Seeding
Online Advertising
Direct Mail
Radio
Wild Postings
Voicemail
Results. In the first 90 days of the campaign:
» 45 million PR impressions
» 2 million AudiUSA.com visitors
» 500,000 story participants
» 10,000 dealer leads
» 4,000 test drives
» 1,025 cars sold
