So if you saw the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, you probably saw the fifth ring of the olympic logo fail to open. Not a great moment in Russian history. Then a few days later, the image below emerged. Many marketers thought, “They did it again! Someone newsjacked the olympics just as Oreo did during the power outage at the Super Bowl last year.” And they were right. Someone had done just that. But that someone was not Audi. It was in fact a fan.
I posted about what I call the citizen brander (or citizen advertiser) back in the day and this was another great example of a fan – a very clever fan – creating content (aka advertising) on behalf of a brand. If I was Audi, I would acknowledge this ad and the individual that made it. I would also give my agency and rind and ask them why the hell they didn’t come up with the idea. This is a great ad and even better because it came from a fan. You’ll continue to see these types of creations and they will only get better and become real time.
The image below if Putin’s reaction to the mishap. I’m pretty sure you don’t what that man mad at you for just about any reason.
