Brand experience is key to forging customer loyalty, so when luxury automobile brand, Audi, wanted to connect with its customer base in Taiwan, it held a multi-sensory racing event with a range of activities that engaged car owners and their families.

Ideation
Audi enlisted global brand activation agency, Pico, to produce ‘Audi quattro Land’, a family-oriented festival that celebrated Audi with its loyal customers at Lihpao International Circuit.

A pioneer of all-wheel drive, Audi wanted to showcase its ‘quattro technology’ so Pico weaved together multiple touchpoints that created a sense of thrill and allowed customers to get up close and personal with Audi’s high-performance vehicles. A series of activations included race track driving, guided off-road test drives, and smart parking demonstrations, as well as musical performances and a dedicated kid zone.

Pico’s regional managing director of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, Florence Tan, says the agency was conscious of engaging both young and old.

“As the audience was going to be quite diverse, it was clear that a wide range of interactive elements was needed to keep everyone engaged. Yet all these very different elements would also need to say something coherent about the brand.”

Tan says the aim was to create “a festival that provided a wild ride” and simultaneously deepened brand understanding for customers.

Execution
The full-day event was a chance for Audi to reward their valued consumers, while providing engaging education channels that spoke to each member of the family.

The driving line-up included racing the mighty Audi Q2 on a professional circuit, testing the brand’s quattro technology on a specially-designed off-road track led by professional driving coaches, and going virtual in the Audi e-tron VR zone. Even kids could get in on the action, racing smaller modified versions of their family car on a mini electric car circuit. Smart parking demos allowed guests to witness Audi’s industry-leading technology.

Another event highlight was the coming together of 100 Audi car to form the brand’s four-ring logo. Drivers volunteered themselves and their ‘beloved cars’ via online enrolment, which reached its limit of 100 in just a few days. To ensure the success of such a show, Pico’s team used drones to coordinate and mark out the formation accurately – a task that took two full days.

Given the scale the event, and the range of driving activities involved, Pico needed a specialised venue with a racing circuit.

“What made the Lihpao Racing Park particularly suitable is that it is quite new, and is the only racecourse approved by the FIA-CIK International in Taiwan,” Tan explains. “It also has an off-road venue, which was another event requirement, and it is located inside Lihpao Land park, which offered many of the facilities we needed for the event’s family-friendly elements.”

Engaging the entire family group required a delicate balancing act. Tan says coordination was helped a great deal by data collected from surveys sent out to registered participants – so the agency knew to expect more than 200 children under the age of 10 at the event. As such, the entertainment line-up was carefully considered.

Pico kept close consultation with the client to ensure that each performer would speak to various age groups, and conveyed a positive association with the luxury automotive brand. The final setlist included rappers, popular TV characters Brother Sun and Sister Strawberry, and a performance by popular Taiwanese reggae band, MATZKA. The band released a new album just prior to the Audi event, so the trend-factor made for great social media fodder.

Participant feedback hailed the event a resounding success – and a number of Audi owners even requested the event be made an annual occurrence.

“The feedback received was very enthusiastic, even during the event,” Tan says. “You can get a real sense of it from the participants’ videos posted to the marque’s Facebook page, which includes plenty of action from the test drives and other activities.”