In 2016, Audi launched the fastest production car in their history. The 205-mph R8 supercar. To celebrate the milestone, we created the ultimate high-speed fantasy for all those who truly live to drive.

We imagined a world beyond traffic lights, speed limits and congestion. Where speed is a way of life, and even the morning coffee run is more thrilling. And then we partnered with Airbnb to make it a reality.

The spot, ‘Desolation’, featured an ordinary family living in an extraordinary house in the land-speed wastelands of Death Valley. The ‘Home of the Audi R8’ was a real house that we then listed on Airbnb with an integrated campaign that drove people to the listing page and invited the world to experience the bucket list worth driving and living adventure for themselves.

“Live to Drive”, in partnership with Airbnb and the TV Academy, launched during the 2016 Emmy Awards. Audi launched a fully integrated campaign via TV, social, owned channels, and experiential to promote the R8’s Live to Drive experience. With over 11.3 million viewers tuning in, Audi had 4 minutes of air time in between the broadcast that aired the “Desolation” spot twice with a supporting spot “Teardrop”. This was Audi’s first partnership with Airbnb and played off of their new brand positioning of being Fearlessly Forward. What more fearless than to live in a house on a desert running at top speed in an R8? Every auto-head’s dream. The Airbnb listing page had a record-breaking buy-out of less than 6 seconds for 8 separate events. The campaign was concluded with 8 real live-to-drive experiences a month later that was documented with all the winning guests.

The 2016 Emmy’s is the 2nd half of the year’s largest media event tentpole that drew in over 11.3M viewers. Audi and Airbnb’s Live to Drive campaign sought to drive inspiration to push the boundaries of what’s possible and try and experimental partnership to garner high engagement. After Desolation aired twice during the show, we also garnered over 18MM+ digital views with over 188.5MM+ earned impressions. Overall for the brand, the campaign increased our search 5x over with 36+ press pickups that were overwhelmingly positive and excited about the initiative. This ultimately led to the first ever nine-way booking tie in Airbnb history.