ooooIYKYK, ISSUE #0012
Depending on how closely you watch the ooooIYKYK website, you may have noticed I’ve begun integrating and embedding a curated mix of Audi-interest content by YouTube video creators and podcasters that you won’t want to miss (Video / Podcasts). The idea is to share more great Audi content with readers who choose to use this website and newsletter as a feed for what’s going on with the brand they love.
A notable video that dropped this past week is from longtime automotive reviewer Doug Demuro. The piece is about the first-generation R8. Doug’s been using cars listed on his auction startup CarsAndBids as an opportunity to create content around older models while also promoting auctions on his site. This one went down the rabbit hole of the first-generation Audi R8 – well beyond the car itself.
I found myself drawn to the video. The R8 in question is an early V8 with manual, painted red (rare in the earlier years) and laden with carbon. I once had a car like that, so nostalgia lured me in. And while it didn’t disappoint on these measures, Doug’s vast knowledge approach took the video somewhere I wasn’t expecting. 5D chess.
Doug never mentions 5D chess. It’s more vernacular that’s come about as part of the lexicon that is hyper partisans being hyper partisans. Depending on your political bent should you have one, you hail 5D chess or you jeer it, but the idea is this. Chess is hard. Throw in the fourth dimension of time or the fifth dimension of multiversal time travel (looking at you Marvel Cinematic Universe) and the term suggests a player’s game at a level no one else can compete with let alone understand. People who use the term are of course exaggerating, likely on both sides, but you get the idea.
Back to the video, Doug’s suggesting a higher level of play on the part of Audi when the R8 first launched. At that time, Ingolstadt hadn’t just dropped their own approachable supercar on the market like a host of other brands have done. Instead, they’d been working up a strategy, dropping the Q7 and Q5 SUVs, freshened cars including a return to the coupe space with A5/S5 and updated TT, and more. When the curious back then ventured into an Audi dealer and couldn’t afford an R8, they’d find something else to buy.
Doug’s definitely onto something here. When you start looking back on the timing and you realize how much more they were doing, it was pretty 5D of them… much like the build up to Marvel. The plan went much further than a wider product portfolio strategy or even the Marvel product placement Doug also mentions.
Audi’s game was a multi-stepped strategy to create brand enthusiasts, pulling them in not from just the usual automotive circles but also a broader spectrum of people open to core brand values. Iron Man is cool but pairing with Iron Man wasn’t a given that early in the MCU. Iron Man was just one step, a step aimed at people more casual about car choice yet amenable to progress through technology… Vorsprung durch Technik.
Knowing the R8 and most of the rest of its portfolio appealed to auto enthusiasts with a driving focus, Audi knew they were breeding enthusiasts for their products specifically. Sure, you might buy a Q7 because your kid loved Iron Man or that you saw in a Super Bowl ad, but they needed you to care about Audi like your kid cared about Marvel. So, they invested heavily in creating infrastructure for these newly minted fans, creating ways for them to engage with the brand and further fire their passion in authentic ways.
Audi had also been investing in Le Mans and the American Le Mans series where they’d been racing and dominating with technology and specifically mid-engine cars named R8. They invested in brand-specific experiences at key races or in key markets – Sebring, Lime Rock, Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta. They went further, uprighting a driving experience school at Sonoma raceway where you too could drive an R8 on track, after learning exercises in more affordable models such as the TT or A4.
In New York, an Audi Forum that sold no cars yet invited even non-car-focused New Yorkers through the door was opened, with a ceremony involving the new R8, an LMP1 Le Mans racecar and a mid-engine Auto Union grand prix racecar racing down Park Avenue – the mayor of New York riding shotgun in the R8 while Le Mans winning drivers were the wheel men.
Of course, the brand couldn’t bankroll everything, so they also preached to the choir, motivating it to sing their praise – amplify the message. Reaching beyond the usual establishment media outlets, Audi encouraged through inclusion the growth and game elevation of Audi-centric outlets – Audiworld.com, Fourtitude.com, Audizine.com, quattroWorld.com. The brand got involved with Audi Club North America, encouraging it to create a consistent organization across the United States by establishing key regional clubs into chapters while excluding no part of the market. Where once a spotty enthusiast group existed, a stronger and more unified network of Audi owners emerged.
Energy and passion for Audi were at full fervor when the R8 emerged into the market. Most of us who witnessed it were as enraptured as Doug shares while introducing the R8 in this video. Best of all, that energy wasn’t just about the R8 by this point.
By the time that first-generation R8 was facelifted in 2012, Audi had gone from no wins at Le Mans (1999) to beating Ferrari’s record (2011) leaving them second-only to Porsche. They dropped their first Le Mans documentary Truth in 24 at nearly the same time as the R8 road car, then a sequel timed with the drop of the mid-lifecycle freshening. These documentaries were entirely about capitalizing on the Le Mans program, saavily produced by NFL Films and to tell a story of human perseverance in racing long before Netflix ever existed, much less F1 Drive to Survive. The documentaries were instrumental in creating brand enthusiasts out of casual observers just as F1 does today on Netflix.
Here’s the thing. Whether or not the launch of the original R8 was an example worthy of using the term 5D chess without irony is a subjective call, but what’s certain is that the strategy worked. It not only established Audi authentically as a leader in the luxury and performance brand space rather than an also-ran, but it made Audi central to the story where you are the main character versus product placement in Iron Man, in some TikTok video, on a soccer jersey, on a step and repeat at an award show not even about cars or official vehicle at some trendy luxury hotel.
What the video doesn’t touch upon, but I find myself wondering is whether car industry brand players today with so much data at their fingertips choosing to rely heavily on metric-revealed trends would be as creative. So many of the moves in the R8 launch strategy outlined above weren’t proven moves. They were gambles, relying on instinct. Simply evaluated by measurements of numbers, no one would sign off on a driving experience or documentaries, much less the very expensive Le Mans program. Measuring on hits and follower counts won’t bring into focus niche titles or owner clubs. Heck, even a car like the R8 Doug reviewed wouldn’t make sense if you’re only considering sales volume. Of course, those numbers need to be considered, especially in today’s world of an EV shifting market, trade war tariffs and more, but numbers alone don’t show the entire view.
Look, I get it. It was a different world in so many ways when the first R8 launched. So much has changed since. With the benefit of 20:20 hindsight, we can and should go back and look at how the multi-level creative ways the R8 was launched and analyze it. Though that moment in history can’t be replicated, it’s level of execution is still so fascinating.
I’d also argue that entering F1 is plenty of evidence of such creativity and commitment. I doubt it’s easy to make such a decision pencil with numbers people. Traditionalists might prefer to see Audi back in Le Mans or rally, but at the end of the day I believe it doesn’t really matter so long as that creativity and drive to inspire is there. And along with that high cost of F1, there’s undoubtedly an incredible infrastructure from which to build that other series can only dream about.
Played effectively, F1 and an avalanche of new models will grow brand affinity and create people who want more of an Audi experience. Could that mean a new R8 successor or some other form of culmination rolling on four wheels? Does it mean an improved leadership position for the Audi brand within the car enthusiast space? If they’re playing 5D chess, how could it not?
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23-25 – DTM, DEKRA Lausitzring, Germany – GT3
23-25 – F1 TAG Heuer Grand Prix de Monaco, Circuit de Monaco, Monaco – F1
23-26 – British GT Championship, Oulton Park, UK – GT3
24 – Audi Club Carolinas at GMP Performance 50th Anniversary Party, Charlotte, NC 🇺🇸 – Club Gathering
25 – Audi Club Chicagoland Spring Drive, Chicago, IL 🇺🇸 – Group Drive
25 – Audi Club of Eastern Canada VAGKraft, Vaughan, ON, CANADA 🇨🇦 – Enthusiast Car Show
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