BBH drives Audi to IPA Effectiveness Awards Grand Prix victory

BBH was awarded the advertising industry’s top accolade, the prestigious IPA Effectiveness Awards Grand Prix, for transforming Audi’s UK business and delivering their highest ever profit ROMI.

BBH drives Audi to IPA Effectiveness Awards Grand Prix victory

Using the guiding principle that Audi makes ‘beautiful cars with amazing brains’, BBH’s creative focused on both the ‘beauty’ of its cars by dramatizing the poetry of performance and the ‘brains’ of its technical innovations, to supercharge Audi’s premium vehicle sales and add an exciting new chapter to the Vorsprung durch Technik journey.

Key learnings:

Sales grew three times faster than the UK market
The price gap to the highest priced competitors fell by 10%
Lifetime customer value increased by 6%
An estimated £1.78bn of incremental value was generated from 2015-2017
Audi recorded its highest ever profit ROMI, £2.07 for every £1 invested

Says Chair of Judges Dame Carolyn McCall, Chief Executive, ITV:

“Despite its longevity, the IPA Effectiveness Awards continues to surprise, stretch and present new learnings for the industry. From extensive initiatives to small budget apps across a whole range of media, the breadth was impressive, the innovation inspiring. The cases awarded offer fresh insights – about data-fuelled creativity, for example – and confirm established truths, such as the importance of long-term approaches to brand-building. Of particular note is of the Grand Prix Winner from Audi which illustrates the formidable combination of this. Audi has a heritage as a consistent and effective brand advertiser, and it used fresh thinking, tools and multiple media to supercharge the brand’s desirability and sales. This strategy resulted in Audi UK’s highest ever return on investment, an extraordinary achievement given the many years it has been advertising. It really is deserving of the industry’s ultimate accolade - a unanimous decision by the judges”

Says Neil Godber, Convenor of Judges and Head of Planning, J. Walter Thompson London:

“BBH have transformed Audi’s footprint at the top end of the automotive market and given us all a fantastic example of how to accelerate an established brand using research and data. It is a brilliant reminder that sometimes the best way to excite consumers about your brand it is to keep things simple, and thoroughly deserves to take adland’s chequered flag, the IPA Effectiveness Awards Grand Prix.”

The 2018 IPA Effectiveness Awards are the world’s most rigorous and prestigious Awards scheme with entrants having to prove the payback of their communications activity. In total nine gold, 18 silver and 11 bronze prizes, along with 10 special prizes, were awarded to companies from six countries.

In addition to winning the Grand Prix, BBH were also named Effectiveness Company of the Year, picking up one gold, three silver and one bronze Award in total.

Full list of 2018 IPA Effectiveness Awards Winners:

Special Prizes:

Grand Prix – sponsored by Thinkbox:

Audi UK by BBH - Beauty and brains: How we supercharged the Audi premium 2015-2018

Effectiveness Network of the Year

McCann

Effectiveness Company of the Year

The Simon Broadbent Prize for Best Dedication to Effectiveness – sponsored by Newsworks

Diageo

The President’s Prize for Best Use of Tech Led Data – sponsored by Google

Prospan (Flordis Australia) by AFFINITY - The world's first cough predictor

The Channon Prize for Best New Learning – sponsored by Radiocentre

Direct Line Group by Direct Line Group and Ebiquity - They went short. We went long

The Tim Broadbent Prize for Best International – sponsored by WARC

Heineken by Publicis Italy - A Game Changer: How Heineken reinvented its champions league communications

Best Multi-Market – sponsored by System 1

Heineken by Publicis Italy - A Game Changer: How Heineken reinvented its champions league communications

Best Small Budget – sponsored by DBS Data

Ella's Kitchen by Havas London - Selling up doesn’t mean selling out

The #IPASocialWorks Prize for Best Use of Social Media – sponsored by Facebook

True Match (L’Oréal Paris) by McCann London - How L'Oréal Paris UK True Match climbed to No.1 by making everyone feel ‘Worth It’

Gold winners:

Silver winners:

Bronze winners:

The 2018 Effectiveness Awards are sponsored by DBS Data, Facebook, Google, Marsh, Newsworks, Radiocentre, System1, Thinkbox and Warc.

Full details about the winning campaigns and additional effectiveness content, including what the judges thought, can be found on the IPA website or WARC.