Obama Inauguration: Own The Day

While Audi is a dominant force in many countries, in the US Audi doesn’t have the dollars to out-shout its key competitors, Mercedes, BMW and Lexus. As a result, historically they have been viewed as a niche brand. The challenge was to make a bold statement with media choices rather than media spend and grow Audi’s market share in the US.

Audi’s strategic messaging had always been tied to progress, so it wanted to identify media opportunities and major events that embodied the concept of progress – Obama’s inauguration was the perfect event, given his entire campaign centred on progress and a vision of change. The 2009 inauguration wasn’t deemed to be too tricky for marketers, because it represented a new chapter in American history. Americans, regardless of political alignment, seemed to come together in terms of recognition of this historic moment as a symbol of progress.
Based on this insight, the communications strategy was to Own the Day, and wholly integrate Audi into the fabric of this historic day that marked progress for a nation, Audi presented itself as a leader as well.

From morning’s first telecasts, to Americans’ morning paper, to on-line coverage, and through to the country’s evening news recaps Audi’s message of progress was there. Audi capitalized upon every medium in such a ubiquitous way Americans could not think of the Obama Inauguration without seeing Audi. Audi sponsored a series of inserts in key publications, the live streaming on five major news sites and three TV networks’ evening newscast. The result was the first ever national news roadblock.

The one-day campaign delivered 111 million total media impressions and generated PR coverage in over 150 news outlets.  Visitors to Audi’s website jumped 555%, e-brochure requests jumped by 62%. In the auto category, the average purchase cycle from consideration to purchase is approximately 6 months. Translating this into sales, Audi’s share within the Luxury Import Group increased from 6.7% to 8.2% in the six month period ending June 2009, compared to same period prior year.