Creating excitement about a car brand when there’s no news is difficult, especially when you’re talking to Audi’s independent-minded audience. The solution was a campaign that tapped into the vibrant mash-up subculture, which was just entering the consciousness of our audience. Participants were invited to take part by listening to music, telling friends, voting or creating a David Bowie mash-up. The campaign demonstrated the “Never Follow” brand by introducing potential Audi buyers to a new art form. It also engaged people in a conversation - one that led them to consider, configure and purchase Audis.

The first wave of the campaign consisted of “The Innovators” print insert and the re-launch of neverfollow.com. The television spot, “Progressions”, ran roughly concurrently, and introduced David Bowie as our featured innovator and launched the first mash-up, which would serve as the anthem for the campaign. The first round of online ads graphically presented the “Progressions” theme of the campaign. The mash-up contest was launched after awareness of the campaign was high. A second round of online ads, small-space newsprint and blog sites were used to promote the mash-up contest, and drove people to neverfollow.com and audiusa.com.