The concept of “deep media” is one I have been mulling over for some time. A “deep media” event is one which, rather than relying on a single channel, uses a variety of media to draw people into a campaign. The end result should be more meaningful engagement with the brand itself. Until recently, however, I have not had a good example with which to illustrate the concept, but an award-winning case study presented at the AAAA Account Planning Group conference last week has filled the void.
The Gold Award winner in the Jay Chiat Planning Awards was the case study on the launch of the Audi A3, “Art of the H3ist.” The case study was presented by the team from McKinney. A brief summary follows.
The Audi A3 is a luxury hatchback, which, as the presenters pointed out, is not a concept that has proven to have big appeal in the United States. To make matters worse, the budget allocated to the launch was relatively low at U.S. $20 million.
Initial analysis by the agency suggested that the opportunity for the A3 lay with younger, more affluent consumers, those more attracted to the Mini Cooper than to the Audi A4. Ethnographic research confirmed that the intelligent, independent, and active people who make up this target are enthusiastic about action movies, alternative media, videogames, and travel. They also want to lead the way; they are influencers, not followers. The agency concluded that offering this group the opportunity to solve a mystery would be a unique and effective way to engage them with the A3.
This insight led to dramatic change in media plan. Rather than direct the majority of the budget against the majority of the target audience, the team proposed to devote much of the budget to content aimed at reaching a sub-group: the active gamers. A completely immersive campaign was developed, which focused on solving the mystery of a stolen A3: “The Art of the H3ist.”
The campaign is, essentially, an art heist movie come to life. The first Audi A3 in the U.S. is “stolen” from a showroom in Manhattan. As a result, there is no car on the stand at the NYC International Auto Show. A TV announcement, billboards and wild postings solicit information on the whereabouts of the A3.
“Attention: If you have any information regarding
the location of a 2006 Audi A3 with VIN number
WAUZZZ8P65A045963, please contact Audi of America at audiusa.com/A3or call 1-866-OK RECOVER.”
Bloggers start reporting on the story and fictitious companies get involved, including “Last Resort Retrieval.” (According to several Internet discussion boards, many people believed these companies, which had their own web sites and various forms of advertising, were real.) A complex web of leads and coded messages starts to develop. A blogger called Ted lays out the themes of the plot for those unwilling or unable to participate in the game, and provides video clips that weave the emerging story together. The McKinney team is kept busy maintaining the conversation with participants and adapting content to events as they unfold. The campaign lasted three months, culminating in a live audience witnessing the resolution of the mystery.
The campaign resulted in 45 million PR impressions, 2 million unique visitors to AudiUSA.com, and 10,000 leads, all of which drove sales 19% over target.
More information can be found online by clicking here http://www.mckinney-silver.com/A3_H3ist
This, to my mind, is what real media engagement should be about. “Deep media” should draw you in, each event or touch point adding another layer to the depth of the experience.
In the case of The Art of the H3ist, there were four basic levels of engagement:
Shallowest: traditional media
Shallow: story sites
Deep: involvement in live events
Deepest: solving the heist
While this extreme approach worked for the A3, I would do not recommend that every brand should deploy its funds to create this type of game – or even create a game at all.
I would recommend that marketers think very carefully about how their media work in concert to provide an immersive brand experience. Aside from sticking a URL at the end of an ad, what can TV or print media do to encourage people to visit the web site? Do the traditional media sufficiently engage people to make them want to go deeper, to actively seek out more about the brand and its offer? How do we turn the traditional model on its head and make them pursue us, not us pursue them?
Please let me know your thoughts on this topic and any other good examples you have come across.
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August 3rd, 2006 at 1:48 pm
Deep Media is a phenomenon we are likely to see more of. I see it as an expression of the sense of discovery, bringing gratification and reinforcement to sophisticated consumers. My thesis is that as leading edge consumers (invariably younger and more cynical) have resisted being spoken to by marketers, they will still be willing to entertain communication that allows them to engage and enjoy intellectual stimulation. This is an expression of being able to “talk back” to the brand. Audi and their agency grasped this and took full advantage.
August 4th, 2006 at 9:17 am
Wonderful example. I think that Nigel is right to be somewhat cautious about the A3 approach for other brands. Any brand which places too many of its marketing eggs soley in the hands of (online) consumers is asking for trouble. Those bloggers can as easily turn on a brand (or worse ignore it) as embrace it.
Given Audi’s budget they probably had to take the risk.
My experience suggests that there are two factors at play:
1. The best thought out and researched concepts can fail simply because they launch at a time when there are other distractions.
Intelligent, connected consumers are notoriously fickle. They only have a certain amount of time and attention that they are prepared to give to this kind of branded ‘game’ and will quickly switch their attention to something else. Marketers are competing with the ever changing worlds of politics, new technology , games, sporting events..etc. the attention horizon of these consumers can change on a dime.
While TV has many weaknesses, a great TV spot can (still) be relied on to be intrusive and command some kind of attention.
2. Wear-out for this kind of ‘creative device’ is significant. Once any brand has used this kind of engagement once….it is dead, copying it (no matter how subtly) is immediately identified as a weak ‘me too’ which usually results in immediate switch off.
August 4th, 2006 at 9:37 am
Thank you Philip and Diamond for your comments.
Diamond, I think that you raise a very valid point about the time frame and longevity of marketing events like The Art of the H3ist. In the context of a brand launch a 3 month time frame is appropriate. I am sure that the event had a lasting effect on the gamers relationship with the brand, but it will have been far more transient for those on the periphery, the majority who just saw the traditional media or heard the buzz.
It raises two questions in my mind.
1) Can you extend the influence of the game through time by featuring the A3 in TV and online advertising of a more traditional type but which leverages the idea and content from the original event?
2) Can you create a self-sustaining event by engaging consumers to generate content for it? In other words, can you make it open source?
Thanks again,
Nigel