“Make an Ad Better” Kevin Willemse (A00818293) – Set L

MKTG3417 – Geoffrey Bird

30 October 2012

Presented by DoubleYou Creative Corporate Communications Strategies

Introduction

Audi has commissioned DoubleYou Creative Corporate Communications to produce a print advertisement which will resonate with Audi’s known target market and demographics, encouraging them to bring their vehicles in to their nearest authorized Audi dealer for an inspection.

Audi prides itself on the reliability and quality of its cars; however, it cannot be ignored that cars to malfunction and/or break when not properly maintained or regularly inspected for potential failure. When this happens, owners of Audis may feel less confident in the brand, even though the car may have provided many years of reliable service. Had the car been regularly inspected, such calamity may have been avoided, and loyalty retained.

Further to this, the potential impact a malfunction or breakdown has on the owner may be inconveniencing at best, life-threatening at worst.

Audi recently produced a creative brief to get this message to its customers, which was acted upon by a competitor agency in a previous campaign. However, the results were negligible, and Audi wish to understand why this is, and how to adjust the creative message for better impact. When the campaign was revisited, DoubleYou were called in to analyse the previous campaign efforts, creative messaging and components, as well as overall effectiveness, in order to improve on the results and achieve their messaging goal.

This document follows the processes DoubleYou have adopted in order to produce a print campaign which will meet Audi’s goals, ultimately ending with the proposed print advert in a format ready to go to press.

DoubleYou thanks Audi for the confidence they have shown our team in commissioning us to execute your latest campaign, and hope you enjoy what we have offered.

Proposal Components

This proposal consists of the following components, with supporting materials and explanations throughout:

• Analysis of the Audi Creative Brief (Original and Revised) • Analysis of existing/past campaign • Analysis of revised Audi Creative Brief • Review of existing Audi and competitive campaigns • Inspirational, effective influences and design cues • Creative concepts and message idea generation • Final idea selection and motivation • Final advertisement presentation • Conclusion

Original Creative Brief Analysis

The Creative Brief originally presented by Audi nominated the known target audience as a guide to developing the final proofs and concepts. While much useful information is provided, the brief focused on the following aspects:

• Audi owners should bring their vehicles in for inspection before things potentially go wrong with the car;

• Having something go wrong with your car can be an inconvenience, dangerous, or expensive;

• Authorized Audi dealers are ready to provide owners with a quick inspection service.

What is important to note, from an overall message and appeal perspective is that the campaign:

• must present a rational appeal towards fear and concerns around a car breakdown(personal safety and convenience);

• Must call upon Audi’s existing branding principles and layouts; • Will be printed in October 2012.

With this information foremost, we analysed the existing Creative Brief, presented in the following two pages.

Briefing: 21 August 2012

Client: Audi Canada

What is the business problem? Not enough Audi owners bring their cars in to approved workshops for preventative mechanical inspection and diagnosis. This translates into reduced revenue streams, and potentially unreliable, unsafe Audis on our roads.

Why and how did this become a problem for you? Audi components may require repair, maintenance or replacement during their lifetime, and may fail if not diagnosed during an inspection. Such failures will diminish the perceived quality of the overall Audi vehicle and brand.

What is the create message/advertisement objective? Make Audi owners think about when last they had their Audi inspected, and how a breakdown may affect them. Then, they should book a workshop appointment for a routine vehicle inspection, in order to avoid a breakdown.

Who do we want to reach? Owners of Audis that are mostly out of warranty/motorplan (5 years and older). They are daily/frequent drivers who depend on the reliability of their car for their work, leisure, and holiday travel. Demographic profile is male and female, 25-45, with an individual income of around $40,000. Busy lifestyle with not much free time to worry about incidents such as a breakdown. Mostly married, has one or more children. Lives in the city and surrounding suburban areas, but travels occasionally to remote areas. Is responsible, busy, responsible and safety conscious. Not mechanically minded, but recognises the importance of owning a safe, reliable car.

What influences should the ad have on them? The ad will remind them how important routine inspections are to ensure their car is safe and reliable, while not doing so may result in dangerous, expensive, or inconvenient breakdowns. The ad must influence them to think about the consequences of a breakdown for them, and when last they had their car inspected, and influence them to consider an inspection visit. Message must also remind/inform customer that inspections are quick and convenient. The Audi logo and branding must run through the advert to encourage inspections to be carried out at an authorised dealer.

What is the single most important message we must get across? Visit your Audi dealer today for a quick inspection, which will prevent the consequences of a potential breakdown.

What value or unique qualities does your product/service offer the reader Your car will be reliable, and you will not have your lifestyle inconvenienced or be put in danger, if you have it inspected regularly and conveniently by any Audi workshop. Only inspections carried out by Audi workshops are quick, and qualified to diagnose your car properly.

What emotion(s) should the product/service’s advert appeal to most? Fear/concern for personal safety and inconvenience.

How exactly are we conveying the message? Three separate full colour print adverts, with an instantly recognisable theme, layout, visual elements, copy and overall message tying the campaign together, printed in six glossy motoring and lifestyle magazines (chosen at a later date). Monthly issue publications; advert will run from October – December 2012 (3 issues). Full bleed, 8.5” x 11”.

What is this worth to you? Advert production budget is $18,000.00. Media costs are to be proposed separately.

What must be included? Audi logo and slogan must be incorporated, used in accordance with Audi’s mandated terms of use. Use of copy must follow the mandated terms of use in terms of font, style, placement and guidelines.

When do we need to get this out? Presentation Date : October 02, 2012 (to meet campaign timeline)

Delivery Date : October 16, 2012 (to meet campaign timeline)

Existing Campaign Analysis

The advertisements presented off the Creative Brief are shown on the following pages (lead advert shown adjacent, others overleaf). The DoubleYou creative and research teams analysed the overall execution and determined the following main concerns:

• The main issue is the use of car parts (spark plug and other parts) as the focal point – the tagline “Don’t let your car get in the way” may not make the connection between the idea that the part has caused the breakdown, and the large, literal visual of an actual component getting in the way.

• Add to the above, the simple answer to the above presented situation – simply “drive around the object that is in the way”. Also, there is no indication that the driver is in an Audi – for example, it could be perceived as “I drive a BMW, and this Audi part is in my way – so I will never buy an Audi”.

• The prominent Audi logo on the spark plug leads the reader to think that “the problem is Audi”. This creates a negative connotation for the brand, regardless of the intended message.

• The situation that the reader is put in is that the car has already broken down. This creates negative perceptions of the Audi brand, rather than focusing on avoiding the situation in the first place by being proactive.

• There is an overuse of fear. While it is effective to portray dangerous or inconvenience situations, the overriding message is very negative, and the message almost threatening.

• Audi wishes to appeal to men as well as women, as often it is the latter who are more worried about breakdowns as they are often the ones driving the kids, or susceptible to more danger, or not mechanically inclined; however, it must be pointed out that they may not recognise that the spark plug, filter and battery as car components that may cause a failure, for these same reasons.

• There is no copy explaining Audi’s inspection service offering, and how it is convenient, quick, and effective at alleviating breakdown concerns.

Revised Creative Brief Analysis

During this round of the campaign, DoubleYou reviewed the intentions and messaging of the Creative Brief, with the input of the Audi Marketing Team. It was insisted that the messaging was on point, and that the execution had failed. However, lessons had been learnt, and these were carried across to the revised brief (shown overleaf - areas needing adjustment, to ensure more accurate messaging, are highlighted)

The most important revisions are detailed below:

• “People do not realise the importance of preventive maintenance”. Audi understand that for most owners, car services are more a reaction than an established habit, and they need to really get across how important it is to proactively avoid potential malfunction or breakdowns.

• The term “preventive maintenance” is more prominent, the concept being that unwanted circumstances can be avoided through prevention.

• The words “frightening” and “scary” are introduced, acknowledging that the female demographic may simply see any breakdown or even minor issue as a frightening, scary situation. While males may be more inclined to think of an inconvenience, for female drivers, the notion of a breakdown is frightening – a simple base human reaction and emotion.

• The key message is now “Having something go wrong with your car is a scary thought – prevent this by having your Audi inspected today”. This speaks to the point above. The key message was redesigned as the team felt that it needed to be simplified to appeal to a wider audience, more casually.

• “You can worry less” was added as a unique offer. It was realized that the benefit of the call to action is simply “less worry”. As per point one above, people battle to see the benefit of preventive maintenance, so we need to present it clearly.

• Given the disappointing results of the previous campaign, it was decided that this campaign will consist of only one print advert, and not a series of three.

Briefing: 21 August 2012

Client: Audi Canada

What is the business problem? Not enough Audi owners bring their cars in to approved workshops for preventative mechanical inspection and diagnosis. This translates into reduced revenue streams, and potentially unreliable, unsafe Audis on our roads. People do not realise the importance of preventative maintenance.

Why and how did this become a problem for you? Audi components may require repair, maintenance or replacement during their lifetime, and may fail if not diagnosed during an inspection. Such failures will diminish the perceived quality of the overall Audi vehicle and brand.

What is the create message/advertisement objective? Make Audi owners think about when last they had their Audi inspected, and most importantly, how a breakdown may affect them. Then, they should book a workshop appointment for a routine vehicle inspection, to avoid a breakdown.

Who do we want to reach? Owners of Audis that are mostly out of warranty/motorplan (5 years and older). They are daily/frequent drivers who depend on the reliability of their car for their work, leisure, and holiday travel. Demographic profile is male and female, 25-45, with an individual income of around $40,000. Busy lifestyle with not much free time to worry about incidents such as a breakdown or preventive maintenance. Mostly married, has one or more children, enjoys wit, humour over hard messages. Lives in the city and surrounding suburban areas, but travels occasionally to remote areas. Is responsible, busy, responsible and safety conscious. Not mechanically minded, but recognises the importance of owning a safe, reliable car.

What influences should the ad have on them? The ad will remind them how important routine inspections are to ensure their car is safe and reliable, while not doing so may result in dangerous, expensive, or inconvenient breakdowns or malfunctions. The ad must influence them to think about these frightening consequences, when last they had their car inspected, and influence them to consider book an inspection visit. Message must also remind/inform customer that inspections are quick and convenient (1 hour or less). The Audi logo/branding must run throughout, and wording must encourage inspections to be carried out at authorised dealers.

What is the single most important message we must get across? Visit your Audi dealer today for a quick inspection, which will prevent the consequences of a potential breakdown.

Having something go wrong with your car is a scary thought – prevent this by having your Audi inspected today.

What value or unique qualities does your product/service offer the reader? Your car will be more reliable, you can worry less about its reliability, and you will not have your lifestyle inconvenienced or be put in danger, if you have it inspected regularly and conveniently by any Audi workshop. Only inspections carried out by Audi workshops are quick, and qualified to diagnose your car properly.

What emotion(s) should the product/service’s advert appeal to most? Fear/concern for personal safety and inconvenience.

How exactly are we conveying the message? One Three separate full colour print adverts, with an instantly recognisable Audi theme, layout, visual elements, copy and overall message tying the campaign together, printed in glossy motoring and lifestyle magazines (chosen at a later date). Monthly issue publication.

What is this worth to you? Advert production budget is $18,000.00. Media costs are to be proposed separately.

What must be included? Audi logo and slogan must be incorporated, used in accordance with Audi’s mandated terms of use. Use of copy must follow the mandated terms of use in terms of font, style, placement and guidelines.

When do we need to get this out? Presentation Date : October 02, 2012 (to meet campaign timeline)

Delivery Date : October 16, 2012 (to meet campaign timeline)

Inspirational, Influential Design Cues Audi have indicated that their existing design philosophy is to be maintained. Audi have had much success with the use of:

• Clean, simple, silhouetted imagery • The use of intelligent wit and humour is encouraged • Headlines should engage reader to read further for clarification • Concise, “smart” body copy • Headlines usually follow imagery, unless obviously inappropriate • Use of poignant, current issues and the campaign environment (competition, new product

releases, life events) is popular

Add to the above, mandated Audi marketing material guidelines regarding:

• Use of Audi’s bespoke typeface in all text • Placement of Audi logo and slogan in lower right hand corner, sized appropriately

The following pages present some sources DoubleYou referred to in order to gather ideas. A sentence regarding each is shown below, to illustrate the creative process:

• Audi Marriage: The manipulation of the Audi logo is a common theme. Audi are being perhaps controversial in this advert, given the high divorce rates. The use of white space, humour, and tagline is noted.

• Currently Awaiting Photography: This creates anticipation amongst readers – “what will Audi do next?” It does not go far at all toward explaining itself, rather leaving the reader with their own thoughts. Very clean and plenty white space.

• VW Mountain Goat/Touareg: VW has a similar advertising approach. This ad depends on the reader to take a second look at the image, engaging them. The tagline clarifies things in a humorous way. White space, image silhouette, and logo placement are instantly recognisable.

• Audi Champagne: Once again, manipulation of the logo presides, and is fun. Seasonality is acknowledged. Tagline is witty and builds reader confidence.

• Audi Eggs: This ad shows Audi’s tactic of presenting seemingly unrelated imagery, then explaining it with a witty tagline, engaging the reader. Audi puts a smile on the reader’s face.

• R8 Stay in school: This outdoor print advert uses balance and white space effectively; but it is the tagline which gives it impact and draws in the reader to decipher it. This ad was placed near a prominent US university; it is relevant, poignant, and amusing.

• Telus Hummingbird: This ad is an example of clean lines, white space, silhouetted images, as well as logo placement and colour to increase impact

• Audi Maze: This Audi FirstChoice used car advert presents another situation where the reader has to decipher the clean image to the point where it makes sense and rewards them with a humorous situation. The tagline is a bit weak.

BMW

As one of Audi’s top competitors, BMW have adopted a similar fashion of advertising. They deviate from the concept more often than Audi, but also portray the clean, thought-provoking imagery and copy that Audi uses. Indeed, this is a very common approach amongst the top German marques (VW, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi)

Geographically targeted, cheeky:

Showing their fun side with an April Fool’s Day advert:

Using a very clever, hidden idea to compete directly with Jaguar…

…and Audi too.

Use of white space, silhouette images, reader engagement.

Creative Concepts and Idea Generation

With the analyses complete, the DoubleYou team understood the key concepts that the ad must contain; use of white space, engaging headlines and copy, and a rewarding interaction with the reader. Successful print advertising should never go too far in explaining the concept to the viewer – only go 80%, allow them to come the other 20%, then present the reward (provide humour, entertainment, wit).

The creative team came up with some key words/icons to guide us: • Check Engine light • “Prevention is better than cure” • A broken car is a scary thought – so we don’t think about it • Inconvenient – dangerous – costly - avoidable

From here we brainstormed many ideas, some shown in the facing pages as below:

“Sorry” Some manipulation of the concept where the “check engine light” comes on but is ignored. The car does not want to break, but is ignored, so it comes up with another light (in a storyboard panel, using photographs of an actual instrument cluster) saying “Please check engine”. The next panel displays “Please Please Check Engine”, and the final panel simply says “Sorry” – the car has broken down because of no user action. The idea was tabled for expansion and described later in this document.

“Push” A simple concept showing how difficult it is to have a broken down car repaired, and thus it is better to ensure this never happens by inspecting it regularly. The idea was a person pushing their car into a dealership for repair, with a witty headline. However, this scenario was very difficult to relate the audience to, and more importantly, put negative connotations onto the Audi brand (shows a broken down Audi). Without reading the copy, the message would be negative, so this idea was scrapped.

“Prevention>Cure” This was a play on this cliché, showing how proactive maintenance is better than reactive repairs. The idea was tabled for expansion and described later in this document.

“Inconveniences” Everyone hates life’s little annoyances; a broken down care is one of these; how can we avoid this? The idea was tabled for expansion and described later in this document.

Concept 1: “Sorry”

With the original idea in mind, the team came up with the concept of using just silhouetted “Check Engine” lights going through the stages of “Check Engine”, “Please Check Engine”, “Please Please Check Engine”, and finally, “Sorry” appears (perhaps with a greyed out engine symbol).

Rationale:

The concept is that the car is not being looked after and ultimately breaks down. This thought process and unfolding story will motivate people to avoid this situation by booking an inspection. Everybody recognises and dreads the “Check Engine” light, so we don’t need to explain its relevance, and for this reason, no tagline or headline is needed.

Concept Pros:

• Humanises the car as something that should/needs to be looked after • Storytelling panels involve reader attention • Humour at end without being too obvious as to what has happened

Concept Cons:

• The overriding message here is that the light has already come on; the aim of the ad must be to avoid this happening in the first place; proactive servicing

• Maybe tells a negative story of car failure • Concept is a bit obvious – car is driven until it breaks • Idea of an apologising car may be too far fetched

Verdict:

The concept carried many positive ideas. The use of the Check Engine light was seen as a strong image, as it is recognised and dreadfully despised by most people who care about their cars. The use of a lot of white space was seen as beneficial and fitting the Audi design principles.

However, the biggest flaw in the design is that its immediate message leans more toward “if your light is on, get it checked out before your car breaks”, and not “have your car inspected to avoid it breaking down”.

It was decided to put the concept on hold and seek out other more convincing creative concepts.

Concept 2: “Inconveniences”

Having one’s car break down is something we may all have to go through. Everyone should be familiar with what an inconvenience this is.

Rationale:

The idea is that life is full of annoyances that we all wish we could avoid. Through a series of images portraying everyday irritations, annoyances and inconveniences, we can relate to the reader in an amusing way that speaks to their life experiences. These may include suggestions such as cramped airline seats, forgetting one’s password, broken heels (female demographic appeal), and similar oddities of life. The headline underneath “Not all inconveniences can be avoided” was proposed, with numerous variations spawning from it, as each carries its own intrinsic message.

Concept Pros:

• Relates to everyday happenings that almost all people can relate to and draw experience from • Simple execution with many variations possible, to appeal top specific demographic ranges • “Storyboard” flow of images engages reader and unfolds in reader’s mind • Incorporation of “Check Engine” light as one of the images lends itself to the “avoidance”

message – this inconvenience can be avoided by having an inspection • Can incorporate a headline that hones in on message/audience

Concept Cons:

• Having one’s car break down could be far more consequential than just an inconvenience • Concept has been done before (showing life’s nuances) - unoriginal • Does not clearly state what must be done to avoid the annoyance, or the gravity thereof

Verdict:

This idea was liked, but the negative portions must be considered. What was most appealing was the incorporation of the storyboard layout which engages the reader to think about their own life experiences. However the message is bland and somewhat unoriginal, so it may be difficult to come up with something that resonates with the Audi brand and the desired message. There is also the possibility that people do not identify with the proposed scenarios as serious inconveniences or relevant to having one’s car break down.

It was decided to put the concept on hold and seek out other more convincing creative concepts.

Concept 3: “Prevention>Cure”

This hinged off the popular cliché, and intends to convince the customer that preventing costly, inconvenient breakdowns and malfunctions is so much better than the alternative “cure” – for example, whole new parts and expensive repairs.

Rationale:

Various small, inexpensive and inconspicuous car parts are shown – however, should these parts fail (malfunction or break), the resulting damage or impact they could have could be dangerous, costly, or extremely inconvenient. A price tag is introduced to the images to highlight the cost associated with a breakdown, but other campaign executions may not use this (other areas of focus). The words “Prevention” and “Cure” are the only headlines needed, allowing the user to make their own deductions about what is being presented. A dashed line between the two images creates a clear separation between them as two opposing ideas, and draws attention down to the ad copy.

Concept Pros:

• Immediate reference to a cliché, with a clever twist, is interesting • Many scenarios and images can be used to easily grow the campaign • Does not have to obvious – let reader think about the message

Concept Cons:

• Some people may associate a cure as better than prevention – the cliché may not be taken literally – think of cancer; what is better, Cure or Prevention?

• Images may confuse non-technical audience who are unaware of any of the mechanical dependencies of engine components

Verdict:

The concept was strongly adopted and carried through to comp phase. Numerous variants were put forward (ABS warning light vs. new bumper, 2 hours of time servicing vs. weeks without a car).

During execution however, the messaging trying to be put forward became confusing. There may be too much for the reader to decipher. A major consideration too was raising the “Do I want a cure, or do I just want to prevent” argument in the readers’ heads. This could create major conflict with the intended message.

It was decided to put the concept on hold and compare all options to reach an ultimate concept verdict to follow through with.

Final Concept

It was only when the creative team at DoubleYou looked at all the elements of each concept together, and combined their strengths, that we came up with our final concept.

We had uncovered the following messages which had to be translated by the creative we produced:

• It must convince the reader to act before their car broke down, malfunctioned, or even had the dreaded “Check Engine” light displayed;

• The concept of a storyboard, to engage the reader and evoke their own experiences and memories is a chosen method to put them into an emotional state where they are receptive to thinking about the consequences of a breakdown;

• We needed to convey fear – but in an elegant, non-threatening way – to get the message across

• The headline or the images must share the heavy lifting – not both. They must complement each other, not fight one another, in their effort to clarify the message to 80% within the reader’s understanding

• The advert should use wit, or humour, to get the message across; this is an Audi mainstay, and given the “fear inducing” angle, we needed to make it easier to digest and portray

It was while contemplating these angles and hooks that we looked at our print deadline and realized that the campaign would launch at the end of October – during Halloween. This knowledge, combined with Audi’s openness toward seasonal advert campaigns, and playing on the “fear” of a breakdown, led us down the best possible creative execution path.

Our concept uses “scary” movie characters, and compares meeting them with the scary thought of seeing one’s Check Engine light coming on. For most, when this happens, it arouses great feelings of worry, fear, and anxiety, uneasiness – feelings most of us do our best to avoid in the same way we would like to avoid ever seeing the depicted horror-movie characters.

The idea creation process is shown on the following pages, followed by a full rationale and description before presenting the final proof.

Final Advertisement Presentation

“Scary”

This advertisement execution meets all the goals of the brief, and Audi’s design philosophy. During execution, we experimented with the correct blend of:

• Headline text selection and placement (at the top of the page was unbalanced, and “led” or “introduced” the story too much, making it less interesting);

• Body copy and placement (the use of Halloween references makes it fun, refers to the mandate of the brief, and follows on from the images and headline)

• Choice and placement of images (must be recognisable by the chosen wide demographic, have the desired impact, and the flow of choice in terms of colour, character, age of movie etc. was considered to create balance and flow) – especially the “Check Engine” image, which was found to have most impact right at the natural end of the story.

In so doing, we covered all of the aspects we wanted to clearly portray and evoke: • It carries an emotional hook;

• It presents a story to the reader to engage their personal experiences and recollection;

• It aligns scary encounters with that not of a breakdown, but of the universally-known and dreaded “Check Engine” light, evoking thoughts of what it would feel like to suddenly know their car is not running perfectly;

• It involves thoughts of not just a breakdown, but a potential malfunction as well, which is more common than an outright breakdown, an experience which will resonate with a larger audience;

• It speaks precisely to the Key Message mandated by the Audi Creative Brief;

• It involves, humour, personality, and wit to alleviate the scare factor, without reducing impact.

Conclusion & Considerations

Many thanks for your time and confidence in allowing DoubleYou to present our print ad campaign, “Scary”, to Audi Canada.

We wish to mention that we have investigated the consideration required to obtain reproduction rights of some of the proposed images, and all fall within the budgetary constraints as per the Creative Brief.

Further to this, please do not hesitate to contact us to further unfold this, and any other future campaigns Audi Canada may be launching.

Kevin Willemse Account Manager DoubleYou CCC kevinmw@uu.com 604 787 6869