Audi's Art of the Heist Captured Leads

July 26, 2005 - ImediaConnections

A recently concluded interactive advertising campaign launched by Audi not only generated considerable traffic and industry buzz, but more importantly, it served as a consistent source of leads to Audi dealers nationwide.

Ad agency McKinney-Silver designed the three-month campaign, dubbed The Art of the Heist, to boost visibility for Audi’s A3 premium compact car. According to Jason Musante, an art director for the Durham, NC-based agency, a new 2006 A3 was "stolen" from an Audi dealership on Park Avenue in New York City last April. The "thieves" left behind a smashed window. Signs went up in place of the A3 at the New York International Auto Show asking for information about the "theft."

Thus began a comprehensive campaign (Audi declined to reveal total campaign costs but a company spokesperson said they were "substantial") that included virtually every known available medium -- print ads, billboards, TV commercials, radio spots, websites, live events, emails, videos, wild postings, blogs, IRC chats, direct mail, voice transcripts, puzzles, photos and scanned-in documents.

By far the most intriguing aspect of the campaign was an interactive fictional story sponsored by Audi that was told across multiple platforms.

In brief, the story used a technique known as alternative reality gaming, in which a community of users becomes a part of the story, interacts with the characters, and helps each other solve the mystery.

"The story centered around six 2006 A3s containing secure digital memory cards (or SD; a postage-stamp-sized storage device used with certain cell phones, digital cameras, smart phones and PDAs) with code plans for the largest art heist in history,” says Lee Newman, a McKinney-Silver group account director. "One car, a red A3, contained the key to decrypting the plans.”

"The Art of the Heist represented a true innovation in the way Audi connected with its target consumer,” says Stephen Berkov, Audi’s marketing director. "Creating the thriller on the internet which involved our new A3 engaged our target customer in the Audi brand.”