Feels Good to Be Right
Posted by Jaci Russo
Scott Keogh, CMO Audi of America
Clients were really scared last year.
Scared to spend money. Scared to make changes. Scared to really do anything. It was like a case of national analysis paralysis.
A few companies were able to get out of the quick sand and actually do something about it. Procter and Gamble increased spending and saw an almost 40% increase in sales.
But for the most part, companies either did nothing or did exactly what they had been doing.
At Russo, we spent the year talking about changing the conversation, that’s actually what we call our case studies. We believe that rational thought does not build a brand - it’s about the emotional connection. When we can use consumer insights to change the conversation and develop an emotional connection, then our clients will sell more widgets. That’s the whole point behind our Razor Branding process.
Some of our clients jumped off the ledge with us, embraced this concept and were rewarded with increased sales. Others were too set in their corporate culture and shied away from doing anything differently.
As soon as you get a chance, please click here to watch an AdAge video of Scott Keogh, Audi’s CMO, speaking at the Idea Conference. He gives three examples of what Audi did differently to grow - up 20% in 2009 while rest of auto market dropped 16%.
About 2.5 minutes into the video, Scott discusses the campaign strategy for marketing their diesel vehicles. As he explains, diesel is very popular in Europe but in America the perception is very negative - the cars are smoky, loud, vibrate, can’t find it in gas stations, basically everyone assumes it’s a technology that won’t be embraced by Americans. Audi knew that the traditional approach would be to show the car on the road and talk about it’s about fuel efficiency - that’s how the US automakers do it.
But, Audi knew that a rational argument was not going to work in the marketplace. As he states “we needed something that had emotion. Audi used a recent EPA study that said if 30% of Americans used diesel then we could stop importing oil from Saudi Arabia. 1.5M barrels of oil a day would not have to come into the US. It’s a powerful sentiment.”
Audi hoped for a 10% increase in sales of clean diesel vehicles and they got a 40% increase with a 7-8 month waiting list of buyers.
As Scott sums it up, “We used a big bold idea that changes the conversation.”
Sound familiar? It’s nice to find case studies of other companies doing exactly what we preach and getting a great result. What an awesome way to start the year.
