Audi's "Truth in Engineering" extends to its user-friendly gizmos

Audi's "Truth in Engineering" extends to its user-friendly gizmos

by Benjamin Hudson

Audi the luxury brand of Europe's largest automaker Volkswagen and manufacturer of VW tie rods has reiterated in its new commercials that it wants to be known as the carmaker that offers top-of-the-line car technology. And as part of the developing the brand identity, Audi would like to extend that concept to every littlest details in each of its vehicles.

The "Truth in Engineering" tagline is also applied in the various Audi gizmos which unlike those of its competitors are not made as complicated. This is because Audi wants for its luxury car buyers to know that its technology is made to make driving easy, fun, and pleasurable.

In order to further enhance the brands popularity and to strengthen its identity, the first ad campaign released by Venables, Bell & Partners from San Francisco is designed to hit rivals, although Scott Keogh, Audi's Chief Marketing Officer has stressed that the said effort is not intended for a specific competitor. He said, "We have a point of view about technology -- that it complements the driving as opposed to having some electronica doing the driving for you. The new campaign is much more about Audi's philosophy about how technology should be used in a car."

The complex BMW system

Despite the many praises that BMW has received it still was broadly criticized due mainly for its iDrive system that was first introduced in 2001 as part of BMW's top-of-the-line 7 series, which is an eight-way controller knob capable of 700 different functions. The feature was simplified three years ago. The current S-class from DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes-Benz is equipped with an adaptive cruise control system that automatically keeps a specific distance from the vehicle ahead of it. Mr. Keogh is pretty much aware of this since he was a former Mercedes marketing manager.

Mr. Keogh also said Audi's new marketing team for the campaign, the Venables, Bell & Partners have conducted research with owners of competitors' models, including with some of the auto bloggers, as well as Audi owners before they have developed the new brand ad approach with the new tagline "Truth in Technology". Venables, Bell & Partners was awarded the $70 million account last year.

The 15-second spots would be telecast tonight on national TV and launch online. The said 15 second spots commercials would feature the TT roadster and hard-top coupe. The 15-second spots are teasers and are part of a broader, umbrella brand campaign that will go on in about a month for the Q7 SUV.

Improving, expanding, developing online promotion...

Since most of the Audi buyers visit the audiusa.com before they purchase, the automaker would be spending more for its online ad this year. Mr. Keogh has said that although he doesn't want to reveal any details of the said plan but one thing is for sure that Audi will be shooting for a viral pass-around of the online portion of the campaign which was handled by Factory design Labs, Denver. The agency has created a small site for the TT launch, the TT-truth.com, and the overall ad messages are directed to drive traffic to the site.