Community is at the heart everything Audi does. No social platform is better for real-time community engagement than Twitter. For this campaign, we recognized that Audi not only had to show up big, but show up fast in order to make the greatest impact. That’s why our community management team wasted no time helping Charlene out.
On the night of December 21st, Charlene Rubush was a contestant on Wheel of Fortune. Due to a “technicality”, Charlene was not awarded the prize of an Audi Q3. Fans took to Twitter to vent their frustration and disapproval of the game show’s decision. We wanted to right the wrong by locating Charlene, with some assistance of the Twitter community, as quickly as possible. No KPIs were formulated. This was a pure community management play that blew all previous engagement records out the water. Our only goal was to do the right thing: strike while the iron was hot, find Charlene, and #GiveHerTheQ3.
It all started with a tweet from former Jeopardy! contestant Alex Jacob. Alex took to Twitter to call out Wheel of Fortune for not rewarding Charlene. Our community management team investigated the situation. We concluded that this was a potentially huge opportunity for the brand. Audi and its agency partners aligned that to enter the conversation, we need to heed the demands of the community. Charlene deserved the Q3, and that’s exactly what she would get.
To make our grand entry to the conversation, Audi quote tweeted Alex’s original tweet letting fans know that we were all for getting her the car. Following this tweet, Audi catapulted into Twitter’s trending topics in the automotive and travel categories. Knowing there would be a groundswell of conversation around this news, the community management team ramped up its engagement efforts, interacting with fans across the #GiveHerTheQ3 hashtag as well as additional commentary identified through social listening.
The conversation was sustained over a two-day period, introducing the brand to an entirely new base of newcomers to Audi fandom. We even received a tweet from Charlene’s brother, who was willing to help put us in touch with her. By fostering the moment through organic social and community management, Audi was empowered to pitch the story to media publications with authenticity. To capitalize on the holiday season, Audi utilized paid media to bring broader awareness to this feel-good, heartwarming story.
#GiveHerTheQ3 was an unexpected, milestone moment for Audi and its agency partners. Our two initial tweets generated 47,000 engagements and over 7 million organic impressions. With the support of PR, Charlene’s story and Audi were mentioned in over 600 broadcast segments, generated over 1.4 billion earned impressions, and had 100% positive brand sentiment. The power of listening to your community can never be understated, and #GiveHerTheQ3 is proof of the wonders it works for a brand when done in an authentic, timely manner.
