Title	AUDI E-XPERIENCE
Brand	AUDI (D'IETEREN)
Product/Service	AUDI E-TRON
Category	D02. Use of Mobile & Devices
Entrant	PROPHETS Antwerp, BELGIUM
Idea Creation	PROPHETS Antwerp, BELGIUM
Production	PROPHETS Antwerp, BELGIUM

Name	Company	Position
Sam De Win	Prophets	Creative Director
Björn Joos	Prophets	Partner
Amaury Thomas	Prophets	Account Director
Jeremy Demoor	Prophets	Account Manager
Stijn Bonjean	Prophets	Technical Project manager
Paul Joly	Prophets	Designer
Tom Bruyneel	Prophets	App developer
Samuel Joos	Prophets	App developer
Tine Sinnaeve	Prophets	Copywriter

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?

Electric mobility is hot. And because it is the future, it is a key lever for brand value in the automotive industry. Although all premium brands claim the best solution, the customer still has a lot of practical questions. Hence the challenge: how can an automotive premium brand like Audi offer true value to a prospect or customer when it comes to electric mobility? Well, by offering everyone the opportunity to find out if electric mobility is a valid answer to his or her mobility needs. While still driving their normal car. We proudly present you the Audi E-xperience application.

Background

At the moment of the briefing, Audi was about a year away from the launch of its most important release in a decade: their first 100% electric car. The Audi e-tron. Being one of the first premium brands to launch an electric car, we realized that we had to educate the people on electric driving. We launched a market research and discovered that the average knowledge on electric mobility was very low. But what was more surprising was that the hurdles to adopt electric driving were massive. Most of them being completely irrational. We realized that as long as people are uncertain that electric mobility is an answer to their personal needs, they will not take any risk to spend (a lot of) money on an electric car. People have personal mobility needs and practical questions on electric mobility.

Describe the creative idea

As in all great tools, the strategy and creation are totally interwoven. So, the creative idea was actually making the strategic direction work. And making it possible for everyone to learn everything about electric driving while using the application. And most importantly, offering a real-life, personalised answer to everyone’s main question: is electric mobility a good answer for my mobility needs?

Describe the strategy

Instead of repeating over and over that a 400 km range is sufficient for everyone’s daily needs, we needed a solution that allows people to experience electric mobility in their personal lives. Only then they would conclude that it suits their needs. Our market survey brought other hurdles (besides range anxiety) to our attention: are their enough charging points, what about the cost, how long does charging take, … We needed a tool that educates the user on electric driving: what is battery capacity & energy consumption, when do you need to charge, can you charge nearby, … The cherry on the cake would be the cost comparison with their current car. By offering the comparison functionality, we could ask the user about his current car. Which, of course, is gold data when we want to launch the Audi e-tron, allowing us to segment the users and start CRM.

Describe the execution

On a technical level, the smartphone application really is state-of-the-art. We developed our own algorithm that perfectly calculates the energy consumption, by only tracking location and using (amongst others) the gyroscope and compass. We made a clear difference between low and high speed data and calculation. (This was important as we noticed that otherwise low speed movement (in city environment) often is combined with lots of short accelerations, which would result in higher energy consumption. Which would not be aligned with reality.) In a second release, we even implemented movements downhill and uphill. Our algorithms passed all tests by the Audi international group.

List the results

As people who drive competitive brands from Audi also download and use the application and put in their current car, we gather a high quality leads that we can later use as hot prospects for the launch of the Audi e-tron. We are the first ever and worldwide to launch an application that simulate electric driving while using your current car. In 3 months’ time, more than 10.000 people downloaded the app which is a high number for the smaller Belgian market. We are now taking the app to other countries for the VW group.