Recently, AdWeek named Audi of America CEO Scott Keogh a top 10 “brand genius.” A pretty nifty title, and one that is not bestowed lightly. What did Keogh do to warrant this distinction?
He led an “all-fronts marketing assault.”
Seems pretty intimidating, doesn’t it? But Keogh’s marketing assault took the Audi brand to another level in the U.S. Often overshadowed by the success of other premium foreign automakers like BMW and Mercedes, Audi used clever marketing to stand out from the pack. Tactics like:
- Movie tie-ins. Remember what car Tony Stark drove in Iron Man II? It was an Audi R8 Spyder. And it was prominently featured in the film. More than 40 million people saw the film in theaters. That’s 40 million people who left with a positive impression of Audi. Pretty powerful stuff.
- Creative uses of social media. Audi is famous for being the first company to use a Twitter hashtag during a Super Bowl commercial. The hashtag (#) is used to discuss particular topics on Twitter – tweeps who used the hashtag in their tweets were part of a larger conversation about Audi. All in real time; all data and feedback that Audi was able to easily capture.
- They forged their own path. When Audi adopted engines that were “clean diesel,” they didn’t focus their marketing on the miles per gallon (an “easy” bonus to market). They focused purely on the emotional attachment between driver and vehicle. The clean diesel vehicles could save 1.5 million barrels of oil each day if a third of us drove clean diesel vehicles. Yet, their message focused solely on emotion. The lesson here: Know your audience, and what makes them tick.
So, Scott Keogh launched a marketing assault, but how does that translate to dollars and cents? Well, in 2010, Audi of America sold 23% more cars than in the previous year. And their market share has doubled over the past five years.
To put it simply – marketing works. And smart marketing works even better.
To take advantage for your staffing firm, you don’t have to place recruiters in Hollywood blockbusters or pay millions of dollars for a Super Bowl ad. But, independent studies – and our own clients’ results – show that companies that invest in concerted marketing efforts make more money. It’s that simple.
Want to launch your own marketing assault, but don’t know where to start?
Give us a call. Here at Haley Marketing, we live for this stuff! We’ll put together a custom marketing plan designed to drive results for your staffing agency.
