Interactivity and Advertising

Audi - The Art

                                                 of the H3ist

As discussed previously, the internet has provided consumers across the globe the power to interact with everything from friends, brands and content, but how can companies exploit the new wave of interactivity to their own marketing advantage? Transmedia storytelling has provided a basis for some stand out figures over the years such as the Dr Who franchise, The Matrix and even Coca Cola but the example that caught my eye was Audi USA's 2006 campaign to launch  their new A3.

Known as the Art of the Heist, the story centered around the real life theft of the first A3 from a dealership on Park Avenue, New York.

Following the initial theft police were called to the scene handing out wanted flyers and closing off the crime scene with police tape. The hoax now moved into the digital realm with Audi USA hiring an internet based company known as Last Retrieval.com. The fake company could be traced back several months as they had been advertising on blogs and in the classifieds as a company specializing in the retrieval of stolen art work.
Wanted signs were erected all over NY asking for information on the incident and a billboard in Time Square offered a hot line for witnesses.

The curious citizens of New York that could not make head or tail of the incident started to blog about the events sparking discussions about the mysterious disappearance. Next came a wave of mass media coverage including newspaper ad's and the following TV commercial.

The emergence of Virgil Tatum, a video game designer offering to help in the search for the A3 if he could document the events in an online game featuring Audi vehicles, and so an online game was born that the ever growing consumer base could interact with. The actor that played Tatum then made an appearance at the E3 gaming expo and gave live interviews (in character obviously) to the bemused public.

Short Viral clips embedded in emails and micro sites allowed those interested in the action an opportunity to investigate parts of the puzzle for themselves, those who uncovered vital evidence were invited to live events.  Through out all of this, one influential blogger known as Todd provided running updates of events to ensure that the interested parties didn't miss any of the action. This detailed and elaborate hoax was drawn out over a three month period and climaxed at an event in Santa Monica's Viceroy Hotel, I will leave you to find out how it unraveled.  

There's no doubting the time, effort and planning that went into this fantastic interactive campaign but was it worth it? Yes, of course it was, throughout the run of the campaign Audi generated 500,000 story participants that followed events and searched the web for information and clues. A total of 45 million PR impressions were served, 2 million unique users visited the Audi USA website and there was a staggering 10,000 leads to dealers.

The Art of the H3ist was a masterclass in how to use an array of different media and technologies to target and involve potential customers in the world of the new A3. A spy movie that came to life, it was and still is "one the most experiential reality blurring advertising campaigns ever attempted".