Audi A4 – influencers & one big brand

Client work
dan.wheeldon

Over the last few weeks I’ve had the pleasure of working on a rather exciting piece of influencer work for Audi. And I haven’t been shy about mentioning it either. Audi is a great brand and one of those accounts you find a way to sneak into conversations.

…This week? Oh I’ve just been helping to launch the new Audi.

It feels good. And so it should. Audi is a household name and a big new brand for We Are Social. We’re really excited about the work coming through already.

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Photo by @Greatarsenal

The brief was straightforward. Audi is launching an all-new A4 with loads of slick new features. They wanted to do something cool on social to talk about it. So propose we did, and the ideas which Audi agreed on were reason enough to get excited.

Despite Audi being an established and iconic brand, they aren’t afraid to dive into something genuinely creative and different. We’ve all worked on brands where proposing fresh ideas is tantamount to slapping someone’s beloved pet/family member with a wet fish – not so with these guys. It makes for a great change of pace.

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Photo by @Tobishinobi

Most of our creative was based around engaging relevant influencers to tell the story of this great functional machine from one of Germany’s finest engineering firms. But who to use? And who would possibly want to drive a rather lovely new Audi around town for a weekend?

While (we like to think) we’re a cool bunch, we know there are even cooler kids out there capturing the world with their smartphones and SLRs. And the kicker – a lot of these influencers have loyal followers who sit right within Audi’s target demographic. So we reached out to some of the UK’s most buzzy talent and started a conversation.

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Photo by @garconjon

Next thing we knew we were handing the keys to a selection of brand new Audis over to a diverse handful of creatives with a very strict brief – “go and do what you do best – capture amazing images from your day to day lives.”

We chose Instagrammers with a look and feel which we knew would present the brand in a number of different, but equally edgy and distinct styles. We wanted them to experience these fantastic new machines and then shoot them on their own terms.

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Photo by @mrwhisper

This is where influencers shine. Their highly engaged audiences won’t put up with anything average, so the talent themselves are as discerning when accepting a brief as the client are in signing off on the content. They have to be; otherwise they (both) label themselves as spammy – which no one wants.

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Photos by @sixsevensix

And the output for our campaign – glorious. All of our Instagrammers brought a unique story and aesthetic to the table, from high-end architectural focus to urban grunge, London fashion and everything in between.

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Photo by @Tobishinobi

Several of our social stories were developed into long form interviews and reviews on the Audi Website, a first for the automotive brand. The bonus was that this great content not only linked what the brand were doing on social with their digital channels, but also filled a gap in SEO relevance via the reviews – a win on all fronts.

Influencer marketing is only going to grow. Ad blockers continue to rise, as do savvy audiences who would rather see something inspiring from within their circle than to ingest poorly executed adverts from outside.

Keep an eye on the cool kid influencers pulling ahead of the herd too. I’m expecting bigger reach, tighter targeting and more high-end content…