PHD took home the Automotive category at the recent World Media Awards 2019 for work with Audi on the ‘Bring the e-tron to the digital airwaves’ campaign.
The World Media Awards jury said of the winning campaign: “This campaign [Audi e-tron] showed some great insight around the power of podcasts. There was a clear business challenge and they told a great story of the development of the strategy, the implementation and results – and the business results were fantastic!”
The World Media Awards provide a unique opportunity to celebrate the creativity and effectiveness of cross platform, cross border, content-driven advertising. Organised by The World Media Group, with an independent Jury including international advertisers, agency experts and content specialists, the Awards celebrate bold and innovative strategies for engaging with international, influential audiences.
Automotive winning case study: Audi e-tron ‘Bring the e-tron to the digital airwaves’
The Challenge
PHD Germany and Audi needed to launch the Audi e-tron to potential customers in a clear and credible way backed up by inputs and opinions from well-respected experts. Difficult to deliver in traditional media perhaps, but suited to an increasingly popular format – podcasts.
Still an underutilised communications format in Germany, this presented an essential opportunity for Audi to take a Vorsprung position and ensure they established clear leadership for the brand, in both electric vehicles (EVs), but also in the adoption of this new format.
The Strategy
Six episodes featuring 16 speakers from both Audi and external institutions were produced, each addressing a key perception – from the history of e-mobility to user-friendly, mobile charging concepts and beyond.
Whilst the public perception around EVs only scratches the surface, Audi’s podcast provided a deeper, behind-the-scenes analysis of the involvement and progress of government bodies, start-ups and German engineering heavyweights in this topic. Educating the audience about Audi’s Vorsprung position and cultural impact in this field, the podcast content effectively drives thrill and anticipation for the upcoming e-tron models.
The Implementation
Audi’s global unveiling of the e-tron was in September and the podcasts were designed to ride the crest of the wave of interest that this global event caused – all episodes were pushed live via a number of local and global high reach podcast and streaming services whilst interest was drummed up through a paid media push using 45” native editorial teasers aired on other podcast channels, 20” radio and Social Media teaser ads as well as CRM and on-platform recommendation.
In total, the paid media push delivered a total of 9.5 million ad impressions targeted to the key EV Considerer audience – those who were starting to become aware of the potential of owning an EV but who were not, as yet, completely decided on the model to purchase.
The Result
Over 250k streams were generated over the two months the podcasts were available:
- Audi’s e-mobility podcast ranked #1 in the Apple Technology Podcast charts for four weeks
- 63% of listeners had a completion rate of 75% or more
More importantly, pre and post tracking shows that the podcast series had a noticeable impact on the target audience
- Prior to broadcast, 19% of listeners associated Audi with EVs
- Post broadcast, 42% of listeners associated Audi with EVs
