Branded entertainment continues to grow in the United States. Most marketers find it easiest to integrate their product or brand into existing TV shows.

However, these product integrations are often poorly executed. The brand placement is too blatant and disrupts the show. Viewers are left rolling their eyes.Audi wanted to use television to launch its new A6 model and boost brand desire in an innovative way, but a typical integration wasn’t the answer. The brand’s target consumers are especially cynical about product placements.Instead, Audi consumers are sophisticated, smart and tech-savvy. They’re plugged into pop culture and are progressive. To reach the Audi consumers, we had to entertain first, and advertise second.More than ever, automobile marketers love to integrate their cars into the hottest TV shows. But we needed to stand out from the competition and reach consumers when and where they were most receptive. We had to be innovative.We integrated the Audi A6 into a hot new show on the cable channel FX.

The twist? The show didn’t exist, yet.

We produced “Untitled Jersey City Project,” a series of eight two-minute episodes designed to feel like fragments of an edgy FX drama. Each action-packed episode acted as a fragment of a larger story, with many storylines left unresolved.The story centred on Frank George, an A6 driver involved in a shady construction project. We integrated Audi in a totally organic way, but were still able to keep the car a central player.We built intrigue for our show - “Untitled Jersey City Project” - through a series of teasers that ran in cinemas and premièred during the Primetime Emmy Awards.Our mini-episodes finally premièred during FX’s Sunday Night Movie franchise over four weeks.We kept the conversation going with sponsored tweets and blog posts. All promotions and episodes led to an official website, where viewers could find additional content and submit their own titles and storylines for the show.

Untitled Jersey City Project drove unprecedented consumer engagement, with search volume spiking on nights when the episodes aired. The episodes themselves rated 17% higher than the average commercial rating for FX’s Sunday Night Movies.Within the social space, 97% of the conversation around the series mentioned Audi, indicating that viewers recognised and associated the Audi A6 as the force behind the platform.Key syndication outlets drove over 5m total views of the series, and about half of the views were generated organically by consumers sharing the content with friends.The buzz around the series has been terrific, with 62m PR impressions garnered and a recent win for best creative at the Creative Media Awards.Moreover, the star of the show - the Audi A6 - received the highest recognition of all: a 51% year-over-year sales increase during the campaign time.