Audi SA's Multi-Phase CSA Proteas Partnership Programme Themed Around ‘Progression’

Audi’s associate sponsorship of the South African national cricket team, which began in late 2014 and continues through 2017, spans a comprehensive set of engagement strands (with both fans and stakeholders) that all align Audi with everything innovative and progressive about the Proteas.

The umbrella aim was to demonstrate continuous advancement, progression and innovation around South Africa cricket to drive awareness of what the brand stands for and bring to life the global tagline ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’.

The specific strategic objectives were to build brand awareness, consolidate messaging around Audi’s prestige image, boost brand affinity, consideration, loyalty and advocacy, encourage test drives and generate segmentable leads by adding value to fan experiences.

Built around the idea of Audi as the ‘Progressive Partner of the Proteas’ and working with agency Levergy, the auto outfit developed a multi-platform, multi-phase three-year activation programme that initially focused on brand/vehicle key messaging, above-the-line work, content creation and hospitality engagement with key customers and prospects.

This initial, year one phase began with ATL, vehicle marketing integration through ad campaigns for the TT, Q7 and A4 all integrated into the sponsorship through various Proteas assets for creative and amplification.

These, for example, included AB de Villers featuring in the launch TV and online commercial for the new Q7: the spot incorporated de Villiers’ record breaking ODI innings as the hero piece – spliced footage from the astonishing innings into the global spot’s frames to add a powerful, local strand to the campaign’s ‘Dauntless’ positioning.

Audi also purchased additional broadcast packages (squeezebacks) that showcased vehicle campaigns and bought space to ensure its vehicle campaign TVC’s ran during ad breaks of Proteas games.

This was further reinforced by two key live in-broadcast Audi branded graphic elements are owned by the brand: The Audi Speed Gun and The Audi Performance Tracker.

The Audi Speed Gun displays the speed of each ball as well as showcasing the fastest deliveries using an Audi speedometer that would pop onto the screen if balls exceeded 144 km/h.

Here's a look at some Speed Gun stats from yesterday. Fastest & average speeds of Proteas bowlers #VorsprungProteas pic.twitter.com/L7aciN3u8N

— Audi South Africa (@audisouthafrica) January 16, 2016

While the Audi Performance Tracker that displays selected players’ performance stats (heart rate, distance covered, top speed etc.) gave fans deeper insights into player performances while watching the broadcast. Players wore the tracking devices for each session, where results were communicated in the broadcast directly after gathering the data.

Audi Performance Tracker monitored the opening pair of @DaleSteyn62 & @VDP_24 in the 1st session. #VorpsrungProteas pic.twitter.com/XLCCRVnmXd

— Audi South Africa (@audisouthafrica) January 2, 2015

The vehicle specific strand was further supported in person as Proteas players arrived at games in Audi ‘match day’ vehicles – as vehicles being launched in the country were provided to the players to drive to matches instead of using a team bus.

For example, in summer 2015 players drove Q7’s before they were available to the public to create hype and attention.

These arrivals were briefed to the broadcaster (SuperSport), filmed, and aired live in the build-up feed, including player interviews with Shaun Pollock as they arrived.

Other at-game branding exposure elements included pitch perimeter LEDs, on-field branding, team dugouts and sight screens at every major ground in the country including the largest in the world at Centurion.

In a further attempt to demonstrate ‘progression’ over and above the existing brand elements, Audi conceptualised and created an innovative player dugout – the ‘Audi Hotseat’.

This was utilised by both the players and the teams technical staff where they could sit pitch side in the ‘pod’ housing two vehicle seats to watch the live broadcast on the fitted LED screen.

The coaching staff, upcoming batsman and 12th man regularly made use of the facility and featured on air.

@hershybru getting the comfort upper hand over @BeefyBotham thanks to the Audi Hot Seat. #VorsprungProteas pic.twitter.com/RaSwfPmil6

— Audi South Africa (@audisouthafrica) December 29, 2015

This phase was then followed up with an evolving match day experiential and hospitality programme that spanned premium game hospitality and participatory cricket experiences.

This latter tactic included March 2016’s ‘The Audi Bowling Lab’ which ran during the England series: an in-stadium activation that gave fans the opportunity to have their bowling anaylsed and benchmarked against the Proteas (all players that bowl for the team) in comparison to their Speed Gun rights.

Using innovative technology used by the Proteas themselves, the speed, deviation, trajectory, length and accuracy of deliveries were measured in real-time and showed to participants directly after bowling.

After having a bowl participants were able to take a look on the live screen at the video replay and graphic displays of their performance data.

The LED leaderboards on display would then rank the bowlers compared to the Proteas and other members of the public.

Having selected a Protea to ‘take on’ when registering at the start, their comparative stats and a photo of themselves next to their ‘challenger’ was automatically shared via social media (Facebook and Twitter) using RFID technology.

This ran in parallel with a set of classic, premium hospitality offerings.

For example,, the Audi exclusive in-stadium experience (a first of its kind in South Africa) offered a VIP/business class in-stadium viewing experience for current drivers and prospects, media and social influencers, as well as competition winners.

Guests received fine dining within (the best located) stadium seats where they were served by dedicated waiters.

The seating space came complete with Audi branded seat covers, cricket hats, Audi magazines, newspapers, sunscreen and complimentary radio pieces for live commentary were given to attendees.

Plus the auto brand had an ‘Audi Exclusive Suite’: an Audi owned suite, used to engage with key customers and prospects. Fully branded and wrapped with three-course catering, the suite was utilised for high end networking and relationship building.

Existing Audi drivers (due for an upgrade) were identified with the CRM and sales teams and invited to attend games during the England series in style, with a full Audi A4 experience.

Guests were collected from home, from where they test drove the brand new Q4 to the stadium. They were then hosted in the Audi Exclusive hospitality suite and chauffeured home after the game.

The ‘Audi Fan Experience’ competition’ was a lead generating exercise in the form of a consumer competition run on social platforms to target cricket fans with the objective of generating leads.

One winner and three guests won the ultimate cricket/lifestyle experience in Cape Town consisting of a New Year’s eve party at one of South Africa’s premier nightlife locations, a chauffeured experience in an Audi Q7 for 4 days, 5-star accommodation, 2 days in the Audi Exclusive hospitality at the England test match, a spa treatment and a unique meet and greet experience with the Proteas players at Newlands.

Audi Exclusive in-stadium media/influencer experience and radio ticket giveaways. These guests were taken through the whole experience from test driving the vehicles into the ground and partaking in the Bowling Lab to experiencing the unique Audi Exclusive in-stadium hospitality.

A further hospitality strand was the ‘Audi Preferential Parking’: which offered guests premium access at an Audi owned parking area near the stadiums for Audi drivers to park their vehicles free of charge.

The activation campaign also included digital, social media and PR strands – with much of the activity hubbed around a bespoke sponsorship microsite (www.vorsprungproteas.co.za) and the #VorsprungProteas hashtag.

Exclusive, real-time branded content was posted off the Audi South Africa social platforms.

Content included build-up, live in-game reactive and real-time Speed Gun and Performance Tracker pieces that mirrored the broadcast elements.

All content applied pithy captions to strong imagery, reacting to milestones and team successes.

Audi engaged consistently with CSA who amplified the content regularly to provide a significant reach.

The sponsorship microsite was created to house all sponsorship related content: including updates on the activations, background and info to the owned Speed Gun and Performance tracker elements, press releases, a fan competition entry page, other relevant information and a range of content pieces including Audi ambassador Gary Kirsten vodcasts.

The South African cricket legend and World Cup winning coach (with India), Gary Kirsten was identified as the perfect fit as a sponsorship ambassador.

Kirsten is utilised in a series of Audi vodcasts content pieces called ‘Audi Extra Covered’ where he previews and reviews each series – such as this episode which sees him share his thoughts on the Proteas T20 team, and the WT20 tournament.

Kirsten also utilised at existing Audi events and as a motivational speaker for building teamwork internally at the company.

In terms of PR, a flagship sponsorship launch occurred in the form of a media event at SuperSport Centurion Park prior to the first test against the West Indies.

Sport, lifestyle and motoring media were in attendance (over 40 targeted media) as Audi and CSA announced the partnership in style with a fleet of vehicles and the entire Proteas team present.

Another PR stunt event and filmed content piece in March 2016 was the Proteas Batting Masterclass: this saw three of the Proteas’ most explosive batsman – Hashim Amla, JP Duminy and Quinton de Kock – were challenged to see how many runs they could accumulate in four overs by hitting designated targets on a field in front of Table Mountain in Cape Town.

All of these activations were integrated with a sales and dealership sponsorship strand that included:

> A CSA Corporate Partner Sales programme: exclusive preferential vehicle pricing sales initiative available to CSA staff and all provincial (franchise) contracted players.

> Dealership Integration: dealerships around the country were provided with Audi Exclusive hospitality platforms in 6 cities.

> Sales: staff across the country were offered the opportunity to build relationships with high priority prospects and to upgrade current drivers at the end of their vehicle usage cycle.

> Audi Centre branding: centres were branded to drive the association in the build up to the ICC Cricket World Cup, incorporating the TT ‘You dare or you don’t’ messaging (a Proteas toolkit was issued to dealerships to ensure the partnership was understood and assets were applied correctly across inventory).

Comment

Creatively and strategically, this is a rich, deep, multi-aspect activation that befits a primary national partnership with cricket – which is not only South Africa’s biggest summer sport, but which also commands the most exposure value/time of all SA sports.

Which is a key reason why a Proteas partnership was identified as a key pillar in the automotive brand’s strategy of taking ownership of the premium/sophisticated and performance spaces within South African cricket: a space the brand and its agency Levergy identified as a relevant space in which it could engage with fans.

Indeed, even before commencing negotiations with Cricket South Africa, Audi developed a planned strategy and leverage plan spanning all business units and marketing areas.

This helped ensure Audi negotiated for rights it needed rather than what was simply ‘on the shelf’ and also resulted in paying a sponsorship fee more than 50% less than Repucom’s estimated fair market value.

The resulting sponsorship approach was to target a high end, affluent audience – the car company had identified typical cricket fan demographics and psychographics as consistent with its core target market – to showcase Audi’s progressive, sophisticated and sporty brand pillars.

The results are impressive too

Brand Values (MPM Corporate Brand Concept): improvements across almost all MPM brand values

> Brand values increased 1.2 metric scores overall (significant increase in a year)*

> ‘Attractive’, ‘Young and modern’, ‘dynamic’, ‘stylish’ and ‘sets standards’ all made significant brand gains*

> Overtook competitors to become category leaders in 3 important brand metrics*

Exposure value

> R69,97 million TV exposure value across West Indies, New Zealand tours and England tours**

> R10.2 million AVE from social media**

Audi Bowling Lab

> Viewed by over 56,250 fans

> 10,681 bowling participations

> 6,235 social media shares**

> Social media reach of 1,615,227**

> 90% of respondents said the activation made them better understand ‘Vorsprung durch ‘Technologically advanced’, ‘About performance’ and ‘innovative’ were stand out words when describing the Lab*

> 61% said it improved their perception of Audi*

> 63% would spread positive word-of-mouth*

Sales, hospitality and dealership integration

> 1,505 hospitality guests including 562 unique prospect and current driver engagements****

> 26 dealerships nationwide utilised the hospitality platforms****

> R3.6 million in vehicle sales through CSA corporate partner programme****

> 3,890 leads generated from the Audi Fan Experience consumer competition****

> 421 test drives completed during the England Series A4 experience****

Social and digital (#VorsprungProteas)

> 127,068,313 Opportunities to see***

> 4,919 Engagements***

> R21,309,360 Ave

> #VorsprungProteas trended in SA, Cape Town and Joburg on the 18th January 2105***

> #VorsprungProteas had an overall positive sentiment rating of 98.6%***

> Audi accumulated more social media engagement than five other major sponsors combined during the period***

PR

> 22 unique media and influencers across 4 cities resulted in 15.4 million opportunities to see and an AVE value of R6.9 million***

> The Proteas Batting Masterclass generated PR coverage value of over R6.8 million

Links:

Audi SA YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/AudiSouthAfrica

Audi SA Twitter:

https://twitter.com/audisouthafrica

@audisouthafrica

Audi SA Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/audisouthafrica

Audi SA Google+:

https://plus.google.com/u/1/111285249063720608606/posts

Audi SA Web:

http://www.audi.co.za/