A leading brand of luxury automobiles, Audi has consistently shown ingenuity when it comes to building intelligent and eco-friendly vehicles. Recently, as part of an overarching "awareness campaign," the company premiered their "Season of Audi" television ads during the holidays. The ads, which depict Audi cars using LED technology to outshine elaborate and inefficient winter light displays, did not emphasize upscale amenities, but focused on superior performance and sustainable innovations instead. Meanwhile, Audi has also paved the way in terms of clean diesel fuel, engine efficiency, and aluminum frames, all of which contribute to creating a better vehicle with fewer emissions. Chief Marketing Officer of Audi America, Scott Keogh, spoke with MGB to share more on how Audi has evolved beyond luxury and become a role model for environmentally-conscious design as well.
Why was it so important for Audi to introduce a green "awareness campaign" last summer? Which initiatives or issues does the campaign focus on?
There is irrefutably a very public debate on automobiles, automobile emissions, as well as automobile efficiency. And if you look at Audi historically, we have been at the forefront of this even before it became such a topic of conversation. Specifically, this summer, we launched a technology called TDI, which is basically a diesel fuel car. What we really wanted to say with this campaign was that there are a lot of solutions for the energy struggles and challenges that the U.S. has. There is a lot of discussion on hybrids, electric vehicles, and all sorts of alternative propulsion technologies. And we believe that there is not one fixed solution, which is why we are working as a company on all of them.
But certainly one of the solutions in the deck of cards is diesel, and if you look specifically at diesel in Europe, for example, which as a continent is extremely environmentally-conscious, a lot of those European markets are using 60 to 70 percent diesel. And when we launched this technology in America, there was a piece of research that came from the EPA that basically said that if 30 percent of Americans switched to clean diesel technology, we could save 1.5 million barrels of oil a day, and this is all the oil we bring from Saudi Arabia.
That's not saying that the only solution is diesel, that it's the only way to go, but it's certainly technology that is ready today. The infrastructure is there, there is diesel fuel at gas stations, and certainly you can purchase it. That's why that campaign was important because historically, there has been pessimism about diesel technology in America because it's associated with heavy trucks, with smokiness from the exhaust, and it's thought to cause vibration and be slow, but if you look at a modern diesel engine—plus the fuel has gotten significantly cleaner—it is something we can act on now and not have to wait 20 or 30 years until electric vehicles become more accepted or more affordable.
What we wanted to do, as opposed to running a typical marketing campaign that says “We have a car, this car is good. Come buy this car,” was to make it about a cause. And the cause for us was 1.5 billion barrels a day. And if you've seen the campaign, it depicts oil barrels rolling down the street and all of them roll into a tanker, and rather than the tanker dropping off oil, it shows that you can send that tanker back by using diesel fuel. It's provocative, it got the conversation going, and it's relevant. I think we all know the issues with importing fuel and what it entails.
How much demand have you seen for these diesel-fueled vehicles?
If you look at the marketplace, we are currently selling Q7 and A3 TDI models, and right now, both vehicles are sold out for the next couple months. So the acceptance has been huge and particularly big in what we call the creative-class markets, or markets that are more progressive and pay more attention to these sorts of issues—places like Seattle, Portland, or Denver. It's really become a smart choice, which is great; we're happy about that.
Your recent holiday ads emphasized Audi's usage of efficient LED lights. Is this a trend that you expect other car companies to emulate? Why or why not?
I think we absolutely do see it as a trend, and the lighting will soon be available on all of our vehicles, either in daytime running form or in full-headlight, LED technology. It's something Audi pioneered, it's something we're first into the marketplace with, and it's something we're seeing imitated left and right. So we do anticipate—and we've already seen it with some of our competitors—that this will be the lighting technology that will be adopted. And if you look at why, it's because LED lighting, compared to your normal bulb or halogen lighting, lasts longer, gives you a more consistent light, and the most important thing is that it uses less energy. If you're just using the daytime running lights, the LED on your average DRL for an Audi is about 14 watts. If you look at how other cars are doing daytime running lights, they consume about 40 watts all the way up to 240 watts. So it consumes significantly less energy. And if you look at the LEDs on the back of the car, they actually—to use a simple term—ignite significantly faster. So if you're following a car that hits the breaks, the amount of time it takes for the break lights to fully engage is significantly faster. Now we're talking tenths or hundredths of a second, but that can be a lot of time when you have potential emergency avoidance.
The point we were making with the advertising spot was not to show that we were this garish, over-the-top brand. The point was that an awful lot of our competitors make a lot of noise about their old-school lighting. But really, at Audi, we have smart, cool, sexy, well-designed, and more efficient lighting—making us the smarter brand.
How does Audi plan to further their awareness campaign in 2010?
Yes, we will keep a number of these campaigns going, and we will be launching a new diesel campaign during the Super Bowl, which will feature the A3 TDI. It's a vehicle that uses diesel, gets 42 miles to the gallon, and when we were at the Los Angeles Motor Show, was nominated as Green Car of the Year. And it went up against hybrids like the Prius, the Insight—and that just proves the point that there is more than one technology available today. We want to get that message out there, so we have a cool spot we're working on and will have ready on February 7th.
Are there any new technologies that the company is exploring?
In terms of moving forward, we have shown concept cars for electric vehicles, and showed one at the Detroit Motor Show, so that's technology we're working very aggressively on. And we've also announced the Q5, which is a hybrid vehicle, and we will be bringing that into the marketplace as well. So I think the four platforms that Audi is continuously working on are TDI, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and engine efficiency. An overwhelming majority of vehicles on the road have internal combustion engines, and Audi is going to continue to work to use a smaller displacement engine that is more fuel efficient.
We're also one of the only brands that use aluminum in our frames, as opposed to steel. And the key thing is it's more expensive and tricky to mass produce, but it makes the frame significantly lighter. Anytime you take weight out of a car, this has a huge effect on fuel consumption. You need to stop a lighter car, to accelerate a lighter car, and turn a lighter car—all of this conserves fuel each and every day. So lightweight technologies are huge for Audi. And then the final piece of technology we'll be bringing to the marketplace is a new eight-speed transmission, which is 18 to 20 percent more fuel efficient than the usual five- or six-speed automatic transmission you see in the marketplace. So every thing we do is this combination of getting weight out and making things more efficient because, frankly, that's what needs to be done in the marketplace.
With us, you're buying a high-quality product, a very safe product, and a product that is right for the times. I think there are a lot of luxury car brands out there that very loud status symbols, and we've always offered this smart, understated, luxury vehicle, and that's why we're succeeding right now.
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