Audi had been on an impressive winning streak since 2000 in the UK, coming from half the sales of leader BMW to leading in 2014. Despite the gains made, the brand’s growth was within the lower specification and less profitable cars in its portfolio. It also lagged competitors on price and perceptions of desirability and innovation, a core part of the brand’s identity and with a proven link to future sales.

A new strategy was needed. The Birth campaign for the RS 3 marked the first chapter of this new strategy.

Under the direction of Vorsprung Durch Technik – a belief in progress through technology – we decided to take a more progressive step: to shine a spotlight on Audi’s most desirable sub-brand Audi Sport to supercharge the Masterbrand.

This started with a very bold launch of the RS 3, being literally born from the iconic R8 – a first creatively and for CGI, as none of the car models were filmed.

This helped create an immediate £65.6M of incremental sales across the range, delivering a strong return on marketing investment of £9.88 of revenue generated for every £1 spent, as well as contributing to a broader commercial Audi success story – growing 3x faster than the UK car market and 2.5x faster than Audi globally, closing the price gap to the highest-priced competitors by 10%, and increasing lifetime customer value by 6% and by 30% among the highest value customers.