Audi's Scott Keogh Dishes on the 2009 A4 Sedan
- SEE ALSO: Compare 2009 Audi A4 - Audi Buyers Guide
Special to The Auto Channel
By Marty Bernstein
AIADA Contributing
Editor
While in Spain earlier this year to test drive the new Audi A4, Johann Van Nysschen, the CEO of Audi USA, told a group of auto journalists “The A4 is our most important car and represents almost 50 percent of our volume in North America.” He added, “An aggressive marketing campaign for the A4 was under development and would be launched later in the year.”
To get a better sense of the parameters of the A4 campaign, AIADA contributing editor Marty Bernstein sat down with Scott Keogh, the brand’s CMO, this fall. Keogh, who joined Audi a couple of years ago after a heading the Smart division for Mercedes, is a focused marketing strategist unafraid of using compelling and unusual advertising to draw attention to a brand’s attributes.
Over the past several months, Audi’s PR department turned up the volume on it’s A4 campaign with an aggressive multi-media publicity program. Jeff Kuhlman, Audi’s public relations director commented, “It’s the biggest public relations project in the brand’s history.” The foundation of the campaign consists of two unique television commercials introduced during the Olympic Games. One, called Living Room, typifies Keogh’s distinctive style. In a 360 degree camera sweep, a traditionally furnished living room is stunningly transformed into a sleek, contemporary space. As the camera pans to the terrace, the Audi A4 appears. To check it out, go here and click on -downloads.
The second A4 commercial is less brand focused and more competitive. A dramatic camera close-up of the A4 in black is seen as letter of the alphabet fly by. Three competitive vehicles appear: a BMW 328xi, a Lexus IS 250 AWD, and a Mercedes-Benz C300 4ormatic as the letters form the words, “Slower. Smaller. Less fuel efficient.” The scene changes to the Audi, moving at high speed, as text appears stating that the new A4 is the fastest, most fuel efficient vehicle in its class. See it yourself here.
While not controversial, these commercials are drastically different from other luxury brands’ ads and are destined to spark conversation. Read on for Keogh’s take.
AIADA: Before we say anything else, the new A4 spots look
great.
Scott Keogh: Thanks. They are getting great response from
dealers, from Germany, and others. We’re excited.
MB: There’s an obvious dichotomy between the A4 brand and product
advertising – why?
SK: That’s a good point. The spot we are
calling “Progress is Beautiful” the living room commercial does
a couple things extremely well. First, it uses the metaphor of the living
room, but it goes much deeper with a variety of messages being delivered
throughout.
MB: And secondly …?
SK: The second reason is the analogy to the
interior of our cars. As you know our cars have always had great fit and
finish with great materials. And we’ve treated them just like a
living room. That worked out perfectly in the commercial.
MB: Can you expand and give me some examples of the how the living room
worked for the new A4?
SK: We gave tons of cues to Audi in this
commercial. For instance when the viewer sees the old walls go away and the
wood come up from the old rug, that ties directly into the same wood we use
in the A4. We had the Bang and Olufsen speakers and television screen which
is the brand of audio systems in our cars. We had the Apple iPod in a scene
which ties to the iPod configurator which we have in the cars. Even the
leather on the couches is the same leather used in the cars. There’s
even a piece of art in the hallway which is shaped just like the LED
headlights on our cars.
MB: That is certainly subtle; maybe even subliminal in focus … is
it working?
SK: We knew this spot was going to be viewed multiple times
and people are picking up on these cues. Our dealers and colleagues in
Germany love it.
MB: In contrast, the product comparison spot makes several strong points
of comparison and is far from subtle … why the difference?
SK: The
point we wanted to make in the spot is there are lots of cars that have an
efficiency message and fair amount of cars that have a quickness or speed
message. But who else but Audi engineers could make the car bigger,
quicker, and more efficient – that’s what the 4 cylinder, 2
liter turbo allows you to do. It’s so Audi. That’s why we
wanted to get the message across.
MB: Now that the Olympic broadcasts are over, where are the commercials
running.
SK: Our top 17 markets in the U.S., the usual places on the
East coast and West coast our best distribution points.
MB: Demographically, who are the targets for the A4?
SK: I think
Audi in some regards has gotten a little too tangled up in segmentation,
demographics, and all that stuff. We need a broader audience. Obviously
there’s a mix male to female, etc., but we want to get the brand more
popular. This campaign, the reason we first ran it on the Olympics, the
reason we used bold-popular creative, was to attract larger target groups
to Audi. That is our number one thing.
MB: What major media buys have you scheduled for the fall?
SK:
We’re kicking off the NFL on ESPN with an aggressive buy and have
also purchased a big section on their fantasy football section. We have a
big ownership section there. We wanted to keep this concept of competition
going so as you go from the Olympics to NFL – the campaign is about
being competitive and the media buy is in a competitive environment too. We
have national cable, NFL Sunday night, and buys during the new fall
programming.
MB: How important are the Internet and interactive in your marketing?
SK: Very important. We will be heavy in banner ads using the product
spot showing fuel efficiency, speed and size comparisons in all the major
automotive websites and are using Google search terms in a very aggressive
buy. There’s a A4 iPhone experience website that simulates a driving
experience. (Click here and go to ‘downloads’ to see.)
MB: Is event marketing part of the plans too?
SK: We established the
ADE – Audi Driving Experience – a comparison driving event on
closed circuit tracks in 10 cities around the country that allows consumers
to drive the A4 and the other competitive cars. Over 10,000 people have
already registered for these events.
MB: Ultimately, what do you want to see the A4 do for Audi?
SK: Move
Audi’s popularity, get this brand known, and make a bold impression.
I am much more focused on getting the Audi brand out, and getting this
product out to a much broader audience to popularize it. Internally, we
like to say, “Audi’s always been known as the great unknown
brand,” now we want it to be the “great known” brand.