How do you persuade the national news agency to write about your campaign FIVE times, get the Nobel Prize jury involved in your campaign, or get fans of competitors to speak well of you?Well, if you are Audi and turn 100 years the same year that the car industry is facing death and Darwin should have turned 200, you launch Carwinism.During the 2010 Geneva motor show, Audis Global CEO announced the Swedish campaign, Carwinism, their best PR project in the world.Carwinism had managed to reach millons of Swedes despite the fact that media was preoccupied with national brands SAAB and Volvo’s survival struggle.On Darwin’s birthday, Audi launched carwinism.se. Here, prominent experts – from a Nobel Prize jury member in Physics to a hip hop columnist, investigated and explained the car evolution – carwinism – from their perspective. Just like any species, the factors influencing car evolution are infinite, and so are the potential media pitches. So much that even Saabsunited.com, the world’s largest SAAB-fansite, quoted carwinism.se.

The goal was to optimise coverage for the Audi target group with the message of the 100 year anniversary and Audi as the leader in technology and innovation.Becuase the Audi target audicence do not necessarily read the motor pages, to do this, we needed to reach beyond the motoring media. The criteria for success was to generate a reach of five million or more in a country with a population of nine million.

On Darwin’s birthday, Audi launched carwinism.se. Here, prominent experts – from a Nobel Prize-jury member in Physics to a hip hop columnist, investigated and explained the evolution of the car from their perspective. Just like any species, the factors having influenced car evolution are infinite, and so are the potential media pitches.

A series of postings on Carwinsim were picked up by media. For example: while “the parallel evolution of cars and home appliances” caught the eye of designer media, the story on how music production evolved as listening to music while driving became popular intrigued music press.Reversing the logic of campaign sites - carwinism.se acted as a news room and platform for promoting Audi technology and innovation. Instead of maximising traffic to our blog, we maximised traffic, publicity and involvement outside it.

This editorial approach of Carwinism made it possible to tap into the daily news flow.

The unbiased national news agency felt obliged to report on the campaign no less than five times. In one single campaign Audi got in-depth coverage in diverse media like Elle Magazine, philosophy blogs, science communities, journalist blogs and even the world’s biggest SAAB-fansite. This while securing publicity in traditional motor, general and business media.Reach: 15 million (objective 5 million)Over 70 articles – out of which 40% outside motor mediaCost p. contact: 0,01 Euro (SEK 0.11)Selected PR project of the year by Audi Global.Carwinism quoted by the world’s largest SAAB-fan site.

The idea was to combine Audi’s and Darwin’s anniversaries together with the worst car industry crisis in history and introduce a new evolution theory – Carwinism. That theory was being written by experts from all different trades, and therefore relevant for all different types of media.The strategy for meeting the challenges can be summarised in five points:1) News value through exploiting two of the most topical contexts in 2009 – the crisis in the automobile industry, and Darwin’s theory of evolution.2) Credibility through third-party validation.3) Relevance for many different target media by offering content appropriate for each niche.4) Stand out by avoiding the traditional boastful tone in car campaigns, and show empathy instead.5) Build up expectations ahead of the centenary, focusing on the countdown to the celebrations.

When Audi Sweden was given the brief to create publicity around the company’s 100 year celebration, the three main challenges were:1) all the media attention was on SAAB and Volvo, both on the brink of extinction 2) boasting was not an option, even if Audi was the only car company doing well3) the typical Audi-consumers do not read the motor pages therefore it was desireable to get press outside the motor pages