Adwatch (May 2) Top 20 recall: Audi

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From the opening frame of this ad, you're immediately thrown into a fairy-tale world. Hans Christian Andersen's Ugly Duckling story set to music, Danny Kaye tunefully raising my spirits as I watch a very strange car (at least, I assume it's a car - it looks pretty weird) meander through town.

Unfortunately the car isn't allowed to mind its own business. It's laughed at, heckled, and its appearance draws disapproving shakes of the head. Why can't they leave the poor thing alone?

And right there is the realisation that this is a car ad that's grabbed me. Not through style, being daringly different or even having a visual impact, but through powerful story-telling. I'm not watching a TV ad for a car; I'm watching a fairy tale. I half expect to see James Stewart walk in from the set of It's a Wonderful Life, jump in the car and make everything all right.

Hang on a minute - this is a car ad, right? Aren't we supposed to be shown the usual functional aspects of the latest model, following a well-used formula? Let's see how the car handles round a corner, then watch it speed along a mountain road with a view of the Mediterranean. That rather homogenised approach to car advertising only really shows me that it's a car and can be driven on a road - nothing interesting or new in that.

That's not what we get here, however. The black-and-white world into which we're thrown is immediately engaging and we connect with the car straight away, feeling protective of this 'ugly duckling'. In less than 30 seconds I've been made to humanise the car and feel sorry for it. Impressive stuff, and very different from what I expect to see from Audi.

Of course, everything does turn out all right. Paul Jaray's 20s experimental aerodynamic design transforms into a modern-day Audi A5.

I can't remember the last time I was so drawn in by a car ad. I could question why the A5 was chosen over the other models - the A3 or the A4 could have done just as well - but it's clear that this is doing a job for the brand, not just the A5.

Audi certainly has come a long way, but the heartbeat of what drives the brand remains the same: the focus on advancement through technology, even if it was misunderstood back in the day. In one small transformation, the past 90-odd years of progression are clearly demonstrated, portraying the evolution of design as well as engineering.

It is no easy task maintaining a long-term brand strategy with new news, especially one as well-established as 'Vorsprung durch Technik'. Yet this execution manages to do this exceptionally well, and the more I watch this, the more I like it. The only problem is that I now have the song stuck in my head.

Brand strategy verdict: 9 out of 10

Audi advertising returns to form. This ad manages to deliver brand heritage with true story-telling - 'Vorsprung durch Technik' with style.

Adwatch: Top 20 recall
Latest	Apr-25	Brand	Agency/TV Buyer	Recall
rank				%
1	-1	Comparethemarket. com	VCCP/ ZenithOptimedia	72
2	(–)	BT	Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO/Maxus	64
3	(–)	Virgin Media	Bartle Bogle Hegarty/ Fifty6	57
4	(–)	Confused. com	Wordley Production, Hornet Inc/PHD	44
5	(–)	Aviva	Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO/ ZenithOptimedia	43
6=	(–)	Wall's Magnum	Lola Lowe Madrid/ Mindshare	41
6=	(–)	Dulux	Bartle Bogle Hegarty/ MediaCom	41
8	(–)	Argos	CHI & Partners/ Mindshare	40
9	(–)	Audi A5	Bartle Bogle Hegarty/ MediaCom	37
10	(–)	Wickes	MWO/MEC	36
11=	-2	Sky	Digital & Direct/ MediaCom	35
11=	(–)	Harveys	HMDG/MediaVest	35
13=	(–)	Visa	Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis Chemistry/MEC	34
13=	(–)	Orange	Fallon/MEC	34
15=	(7=)	Tesco F&F	The Red Brick Road/ Initiative	31
15=	(18=)	Homebase	Leo Burnett/ Mindshare	31
17=	(–)	Maggi seasonings	Publicis/Mindshare	28
17=	(–)	Oral-B	Publicis/Starcom	28
19	(–)	Karcher Window-Vac	HMDG/Maxus	27
20	-17	The Co-operative	TBWA\ Manchester/ PHD Rocket	26

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk