Making the car sexy

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Audi competes with established luxury brands such as BMW and Mercedes in the Canadian market and wanted to address the fact that it lags in ‘prestige’ image scores. The launch of Audi’s supercar – the R8 – presented a good opportunity to address this challenge.

The car brand wanted to target adults aged 25-54 with a high household income. Celebrity endorsement is part of Audi’s global strategy, known as “stars in cars”, and the Toronto Film Festival is one of the most celebrity-heavy events in the year.

The challenge was to create the wow factor with a series of installations and stand out despite the fact that the event already had another automotive brand as an official sponsor. Audi negotiated directly with the movie studios and offered Audis and drivers to chauffeur actors and directors to the biggest premieres and parties.

Audi also sponsored parties hosted by Hello!, Time and Inside Entertainment magazines and linked up with a photographic agency, Wire Images, to ensure that they sent photographers to cover the celebrities arriving on the red carpet in Audis. There were also car installations including one of a floating car in a pool for a major premiere.

Audi dominated the festival as a result, driving Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney and Michael Caine. The campaign yielded a 2:1 return on investment and Brad Pitt even bought one.

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