The Rosen Project

Background

The A4 is Audi’s most important model in terms of the sheer number of cars sold. The new A4 offers both good looks and cutting edge technology. With high sales expectations, the need to interest and attract potential purchasers was important. However, the budget for an acquisition campaign was limited so it was necessary to find an online strategy with a strong viral element.

Idea

The agency created a microsite on which the content was revealed little by little as if it was a secret project. Registration was required to access the microsite, since collecting data about potential car-buyers was the most important thing. The storyline was that somewhere on Earth, inside a secret bunker, 10 engineers were working on the Rosen Project: the building of a machine following a set of blueprints of unknown origin which have mysteriously appeared in Ingolstadt, at Audi’s headquarters. Einstein-Rosen’s theory describes holes in the universe, through which matter could travel through space-time. Had theory become reality? Were the mysterious blueprints drawn from another, parallel universe? Only those who logged on to www.proyectorosen.com could find out the truth.

In the teaser stage of the campaign, users logged onto the site to see a news report about the strange blueprints. They could then proceed to a secret bunker, where engineers and robots could be seen working live. The website’s content changed continuously, showing the robots in different situations, or, through the hangar’s security cameras, the engineers’ helicopter trips. Only after a few weeks was it revealed that the Rosen Project had made the building of the new Audi A4 possible, and more details were published about the vehicle through 360º views and product videos. Innovative, futuristic, imaginative. That’s both the car and the idea.

Results

www.proyectorosen.com got 60,000 visits and collected over 7,500 prospects interested in the new Audi A4, despite having to register to access the site. Almost 100 blogs talked about the campaign, as well as several forums and personal webpages, including some at Audi competitors. Some users assembled the blueprints that were provided in PDF, which wasn’t easy, and published them in their blogs, trying to deduce what Audi model they were about. ‘The Rosen Project has worked, since we’re all making strange guesses about it,’ wrote Daniel Seijo at Motorpasion, Spain’s biggest automotive blog, with almost one million unique users a month.

Our Thoughts

This is the way of the world now. Advertisers have less money but want to achieve the same results they got when they had more to spend. Actually, their apparently inconsistent and unreasonable demands are good for our industry because they force clients to be more open to new kinds of idea and they force us to be more inventive in finding ways of achieving our clients’ objectives.