Major publishers reject the majority of manuscripts that they receive, especially when it comes to new writers. Just 1% will end up in a bookshop.* The fact is they increasingly rely on well-known writers or tried and tested formulas guaranteeing high returns and less on emerging authors. Given this situation, how many great novels must have been left in an inbox somewhere?

Based on its new “Future is an attitude” positioning, Audi wants to prove that it is committed not just to electromobility, but also to initiatives focused on building a better future. Which is why we wanted to carry out an action that would support a sector as important and neglected as that of new writers, thereby championing the idea that, as with the best ideas, the best stories are yet to come.

* Source: EL PAIS, 14 October 2021

There are all manner of literary collections and anthologies, but none focused on writers who have not yet been given a chance. So, we created the first collection of books that are yet to exist – a collection of manuscripts from new authors that have yet to see the light of day.

We selected a group of promising authors and showcased their work on a website where it was only possible to read the title and the first paragraph: www.audifuturebooks.com.

We also passed on the editor’s role to our customers, so that they could judge the available content of the different works and choose the one that had the potential to become the next Spanish bestseller.

With the selection made, Audi completed the process by covering the cost of final editing, publication and distribution, thereby overcoming the main handicap, both financial and logistical, that the majority of budding authors face.

In order to launch the campaign, we took advantage of a day of great significance in Spain: World Book Day, when many national novels are released, and the custom is to give books to family and friends.

It is an idea highly focused on the target audience of the brand’s communications, defined as “sophisticated postmodern”, a highly educated consumer profile who are interested in creativity and seeking out meaningful experiences that fulfil them and have a genuine impact.

With this campaign we were able to meet the objective set by Audi of demonstrating a “shared ambition” with the target, and to demonstrate that connection not just in terms of mobility, but in territories that extend beyond it as well, such as culture and social initiatives.

On 23 April (World Book Day) we sent an email to our entire database presenting the collection and encouraging them to get involved.

For the design of the “collection of non-existent books”, we sought an aesthetic that would effectively convey the concept, with an ultra-minimalist style and as little information as possible.

Following the voting, the winning book was published in collaboration with Grupo Planeta, the biggest Spanish-language publisher in the world.

We announced the outcome to the participants and informed them of the different processes by email as they occurred.

Finally, we sent a hard copy to the first 1,500 participants and a digital version to everyone else.

Furthermore, the novel was presented at the 80th edition of the Madrid Book Fair and was distributed in the country’s main bricks-and-mortar and digital bookshops, including Fnac, La Casa del Libro and Amazon.

We provided the collection to all of our customers, leads and prospects (over 202,000 readers), giving it a greater reach than the latest bestseller in Spain.* In addition, the email in which we told recipients about the book production process and its completion achieved open rates of 70 to 85%, a result far in excess of the average for the brand’s loyalty communications.

This way, not only did we “breathe life” into a great novel, we also gave hundreds of thousands of people the opportunity to collaborate with the brand in a role as important as publishing, and to show their commitment to and belief in the talent of tomorrow.

The action has received such a positive response that a second edition is currently underway.

* The bestselling book in Spain in 2021, The Enigma of Room 622, reached 113,575 copies.