Situation: Audi is a brand that has historically fought against gender inequality. Today, more than 50% of its employees are female and is the premium brand with most female drivers. But this is not something new. 40 years ago, Michèle Mouton became the first female driver to ever win a race in the World Rally Championship, and she did so driving an Audi quattro. Despite all these efforts, the general public still see cars as something for men.

Brief: Send a message, on International Women’s Day, that reinforces Audi’s efforts against gender inequality in the automotive world.

Objectives: Fight prejudice against women in motorsports, create a relevant and impactful message that can go beyond International Women’s Day and inspire the next generation of drivers.

As mentioned before, LEGO launched a set of the Audi quattro S1, the car that dominated the rallies in the 1980s, as a tribute for the 40th anniversary of the quattro technology. The set was highly detailed, but it was missing a key piece: Michèle Mouton, former Audi quattro S1 driver and the only woman to win in a World Rally Championship.

To correct this oversight, Audi created the official LEGO minifigure of Michèle and, on International Women's Day, sent it to everyone who had bought the set. All they had to do was upload a photo on social media with the LEGO Audi quattro S1 using the hashtag #ElPilotoEsElla (#SheIsTheDriver)

This minifigure became the first female driver in a LEGO set and achieved two different goals: to demonstrate the influence of women in motorsports and to inspire a whole new generation of female drivers to go even further.

Audi only considers progress to be what contributes to creating a better future, which is why the social dimension of progress plays a fundamental role in the brand.

For this reason, International Women's Day is much more than just an event. It’s a strategic day that allows us to reinforce Audi's progressive positioning.

To make the most of such an important moment, we needed a high-profile campaign based on a great idea.

By creating Michèle Mouton’s LEGO minifigure we gave the owners of the LEGO set the possibility to complete it, we transformed it into a gender equality statement for parents to share with their children, and we showed a new generation of drivers the importance of women in motorsports. And all with an attractive key visual and a positive and relevant message that didn’t antagonize anyone.

The Audi quattro S1 LEGO set would never be complete without its most legendary driver, so we created Michèle Mouton’s minifigure, the first ever female driver for a LEGO set.

A few days before International’s Women Day, we presented the minifigure in social media with a content campaign that introduced the LEGO set and the story behind the real Audi quattro S1 and the mythical Michèle Mouton.

To obtain the minifigure we invited people to upload a picture of their sets using the hashtag #ElPilotoEsElla (#SheIsTheDriver).

This way, not only every owner of the Audi quattro LEGO set would be able to complete it with the most legendary female driver in history, but we could also get her story out to a broader and younger audience.

More than 11,000 requests from 19 countries.

13 million impressions.

25%+ Audi mentions.

99% positive sentiment.

10x more searched for Michèle Mouton on Google.

Since the only way of getting the minifigure was by owning the LEGO set, it became the best-selling LEGO set during the campaign (surpassing Harry Potter, Friends and Avengers) and sold out after only three days (without ever advertising it).

The minifigure is now on sale at Amazon and eBay for more than 250 dollars.