Example of an Effective Social Media Campaign

In September 2006 Audi officially launched their new car the R8. Even though Audi is already
a successful and well known brand, it can be difficult to generate hype for a new line of vehicle
because they come out with new cars all the time. Their competitors are also creating new
styles and designs all the time. Making your new car stand out amongst all the others can be
a challenge and bragging about the vehicles specs can only do so much. An important lesson
in social media marketing is listening to your consumers, this is clearly a lesson Audi took to
heart. A fan of Audi cars, by the name of Joanne McCoy, posted on twitter talking about their
new model and she used the hashtag #WantAnR8. Despite the fact that these sort of tweets
gets posted all the time after new products are announced, Audi decided to capitalize on the
opportunity it created. They reached out to Joanne and offered to let her drive a brand new
R8, granted it was only for a day. They, of course, publicized the event and included her
hashtag. Joanne’s good fortune inspired many other fans to continue to hashtag, likely in
hopes of getting the same experience she had, but the hashtag spread regardless. This
created a large boost in hype about the vehicle and Audi in general. Audi even used the
hashtag a contest the following year allowing eight more fans to test drive the car, to enter
you simply had to post a tweet with the hashtag. Doing this created a lasting excitement
about the car that would not soon be forgotten. Through the use of this campaign the hashtag
was tweeted over 75,000 times. I was most impressed by this because Audi didn’t even come
up with it, they listened to their consumers and used them as inspiration.