In today’s fragmented, fast-paced and digital world, consumers have more ways than ever of obtaining information and entertainment when they want it, how they wanted it. For many brands in the U.S., this means that taking out a 30-second radio or TV spot, or posting a billboard along the side of the highway no longer cuts it. We’re living in a new era of content marketing in which companies are increasingly experimenting with branded entertainment as a way to reach and connect with consumers, tell the stories behind their brands, showcase their personality, and steal mind- and market share from competitors. This means that brands are no longer mere advertisers and sponsors, but rather are creators and publishers. The challenge is figuring out how to effectively create content that not only entertains and inspires, but also builds brand affinity and establishes deep bonds with consumers.

Challenge

Audi wanted to increase visibility for the Audi S7 – a car that had launched more than six months prior – while shifting some attention from the long-standing leader, the Mercedes-Benz CLS550. One method for sizing up the competition is the head-to-head comparison video, which traditionally is rooted in statistics, like horsepower, torque, and 0-60 mph. The problem with these videos is that they live primarily in the automotive space (buff books, auto enthusiast sites, fan blogs).

Objectives

The overall goal was to create a product comparison that was entertaining, shareable, and designed for the masses – all without a paid media spend. The objectives were three fold: 1) reach a larger audience than traditional product comparisons, 2) secure consumer media attention without spending a penny on paid distribution, and 3) generate social media buzz.

Strategy

We knew there was a much-need paradigm shift in the way we approach vehicle comparisons: to get people outside of the automotive community talking and sharing, we needed to make the product comparison part of the pop-culture mainstream. We produced a video starring two of the biggest names in sci-fi, Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy. The established icon (Nimoy and Mercedes-Benz) versus the emerging icon (Quinto and Audi) set off on a race to see who could reach their destination first.

Execution

Through humor and dialogue written specifically to rile the sci-fi community – a passionate and engaged audience – the video showed that with superior technology, speed and design, the Audi S7 was the clear winner. We release the video on Audi’s YouTube channel, distributed it wide to media that appeals to mass audiences (morning shows, entertainment sites, etc.), and shared it on Audi’s social media channels (ZERO paid distribution).

“The Challenge,” through the use of celebrities, entertaining dialogue and humor effectively compared the Audi S7 to the Mercedes-Benz CLS550 in a way that captured the attention of a mass audience far larger than automotive enthusiasts. The video drew widespread praise and excitement from media, consumers and influencers who deemed the video “the single greatest ad of all time” (Slate.com), “31 flavors of awesome” (WashingtonPost.com), “an absolutely funny and very clever ad” (consumer), “brilliant…just brilliant” (consumer), and “utterly delightful” (actor Simon Pegg).

With more than 8.4 million YouTube views, “The Challenge” didn’t just meet the campaign objectives and benchmarks – it became Audi’s most viewed online-only video ever. Within the first 24 hours the video had more than 1.8 million views on Audi’s YouTube channel, and it racked up five million views by day five. In the first week, “The Challenge” was the #1 most viewed on YouTube in 56 regions across the U.S., and was ranked #1 on Reddit.com’s homepage for over 7 hours. It was the #1 trending story on both Forbes.com and ExtraTV.com homepages, and Mashable’s readers shared the video more than 39,500 times.

Media coverage received was significant, with over 250 outlets – including Good Morning America, Conan, Variety, Mashable, USAToday.com, ETOnline, WSJ.com, Adweek.com, and many more – covering the video for a total of 401 million media impressions (93% of impressions came from non-automotive sites). Buzz didn’t stop at traditional media; on twitter, “The Challenge” received over 187 million impressions from consumers, media and celebrities. Talent and influencers raved, tweeted and shared the video, including Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer, Kate Walsh, Rachael Harris, Kellan Lutz and Simon Pegg reaching more than 18.1 million Twitter impressions.