Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Audi Produces All-Terrain Ski Video

Seeking an ad campaign to target a young adult audience while displaying the versatility of the Quattro technology, Audi turned to French ski champion Candide Thorvex to create yet another sensational, eyeball-grabbing promotional video. The video is just under two minutes long and follows Candide ripping down hillsides on skis without a single snowflake in any of the terrain environments. Candide has absolute control over his descents and even throws in some tricks and flips along the way for flare while the aerial camera tracks from above. The video is the second installment of the Audi Quattro series (the first video launched in 2015) and is sure to rack up millions of views- currently just shy of 1M views only a day after publishing.

As an avid skier, I’m was first drawn to the video through a professional skier’s Instagram post with a clip of it and eventually found my way to the full video on Candide’s Youtube account. Upon first watching, I was blow away by the sensational skiing, the alien landscapes, and cinematography. It wasn’t until I reached the very end did I realize the video was an ad for Audi. There are only subtle ad placements at the start and end of the video. Ultimately I made the connection between the video and the product and appreciated the full production value.

Creating a viral video is an impossible feat and yet marketers continue to try and produce the next big one. I think the Audi ad with Candide strikes the perfect balance. It draws in a certain customer demographic interested in skiing and only reveals the product in a subtle, not in-your-face way. The ad is organic and a great example of how to market without paid support through display placement or sponsored content.


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