Audi advocates for everyday and extreme use in new ad

Audi A4

Volkswagen-owned Audi is changing the perception of its vehicle line with an extreme new advertising campaign.

The Everyday Extremes advertisements aim to dispel the notion that the Audi line is exclusively for special occasions or difficult terrain by showing it in everyday environments. Changing the perception of a vehicle can help generate appeal among a larger audience.

“This ad is designed to get drivers to think Audi to deal with their “everyday extremes,” said Lauren Fix, automotive expert, Lancaster, NY.  “Their all wheel drive system, Quattro – All Wheel Drive, can drive through all extremes and this just makes it more fun.”

Weathering extremes
In a minute-long video shared on social media, a clock, escalators and toys are shown before the sound of a vehicle is heard. There is a cut to the vehicle, an A4, driving through a supermarket, which boards an elevator to another level of a mall.

Audi A4

The vehicle drives through a floor containing dolls and other toys, as well as an outdoor garden. In the background, a recording of a woman listing product locations can be heard.

The vehicle continues driving until it stops in front of a path blocked by mannequins. The music in the ad drops out for a moment, creating a brief moment of suspense.

However, the A4 goes in to reverse and reroutes itself through another shopping aisle and toward checkout.

Along the way, there is a close-up of “Pizza Quattro,” a nod to the Audi quattro all-wheel drive. At checkout, the cashier screen simply says “all-wheel grip for everyday trips” before letting the vehicle pass.

“Audi quattro 2016: Everyday Extremes“

The video was conceived by BBH Partners.

The shopping mall setting connotes the everyday, thus bringing the Audi line into everyday use in a comedic and fun way. Additionally, the end of the video underlines the main point that the vehicle is all-purpose despite cultivating a perception of luxury.

In addition, viewers watch the A4 navigate surfaces ranging from marble to ice to gravel and milk conveys the handling abilities of the vehicle, showing that Audi’s all-wheel drive is effective in both everyday environments and on unusual terrain.

Audi often advertises with the goal of changing perception (see story). As what consumers want from their vehicles undergoes changes, the brand is attempting to keep up with its consumers.

Changing perception
Audi has worked with BBH on other advertisements, which have appealed to more traditional values of speed and excitement.

Last week, Audi UK was ordered not to run a television commercial again in its same form after Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority found it irresponsibly depicted acceleration as a thrill.

The automaker’s “The Eye,” also conceived by agency BBH Partners, portrays the experience of driving the Audi’s R8 by zooming in on the eye’s involuntary responses while behind the wheel. While Audi said that the ad was intended to communicate the focused drive of the vehicle and its brakes, the ASA upheld the complaint, barring Audi from running the commercial again (see story).

Other automakers are also shifting perception with new marketing strategies.

For example, U.S.-based Lincoln Motor Company is appealing to the affluent with the 2017 Lincoln Continental.

Lincoln has mailed out print pamphlets to announce that orders for the vehicle are being accepted and has introduced a Black Label Experience that will appeal to more affluent consumers. The Ford-owned brand is working to reposition itself and appeal more directly to affluent consumers, competing with brands such as Audi and Mercedes (see story).

“Audi is always looking to create more ‘conquest’ sales from other brands and bring new buyers to Audi products,” Ms. Fix said.

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