The Audi R8 has been an icon among car enthusiasts since its debut in 2006 – with R8 content consistently ranking among Audi’s top-performing series on social channels. With this final year of production for the cherished supercar, we decided to bid farewell by allowing superfans to “direct” a video for a send-off campaign by voting on film elements through Instagram Stories.

Knowing that the R8 has been a fan favorite since the car was first introduced 15 years ago, we saw an opportunity to tap into its cultural appeal. It’s been featured in Iron Man, The Wolverine, Fifty Shades of Grey, displayed at the Petersen Automotive Museum, and has maintained a cult-like following among car enthusiasts. In addition, Audi has over 17 million Instagram followers. For “The Last Lap,” we wanted to tap into this passionate audience — to help them pay tribute to the car they’ve loved and to be part of the send-off since they’ve shown so much enthusiasm and engagement over the years.

We felt this was the right approach based on two creative effectiveness studies. The first stated that culturally resonant brands can grow 25% more than competitors, making cultural insight a key business driver (WARC: Scoring brands’ standing in culture). We knew this car, more than any of our other vehicles, was well-embedded within culture, and we wanted to leverage that equity. The other element of creative effectiveness we used was nostalgia. According to Kantar, nostalgia within ads increases enjoyability and emotional connection (Kantar). Knowing the R8 was beloved and emotionally connected to fans, we had the perfect hook to build interest and excitement right out of the gates.

Check out the case study we did with VCCP.