Audi Accelerates Media Spend

NEW YORK In a bid to boost its brand profile, Audi has supercharged its marketing budget for 2009, planning a 15 to 20 percent increase in its U.S. promotional spend.

The automaker’s souped-up TV plan kicks off Feb. 1 with a 60-second Super Bowl spot designed to showcase the Audi A6 sedan.

While many car companies are planning to hit the brakes on their TV spend, Audi is looking to build on the gains it made in market share a year ago. “We’re still a brand that doesn’t have enough awareness. Historically, Audi has been a great unknown,” said chief marketing officer Scott Keogh. “We’re hoping to get the year off to a fast start with the Super Bowl ad, and then dial down on the A6’s TV presence, while keeping the momentum alive virally.”

Three weeks after the NFL’s main event, Audi will switch gears, unveiling the new compact crossover Q5 during ABC’s Feb. 22 broadcast of the 81st annual Academy Awards.

As was the case a year ago, Audi’s Super Bowl XLIII spot is a 60-second send-up of a classic movie moment. The ad will run in the first commercial pod following the 6:30 p.m. kickoff, appearing after Budweiser’s opening spot and a teaser for Sony Pictures’ theatrical Angels & Demons.

The A6 spot marks a bit of a departure for Audi, which bought time during last year’s Super Bowl to promote the R8 luxury sports coupe, which carries a sticker price of $114,200. By comparison, the four-door A6 starts at $45,100.

Keogh said the incremental coverage a marketer receives when buying time in the Super Bowl is worth the price of admission. (NBC is selling 30-second spots for $3 million a pop.) “We did 600 million media impressions last year after the Super Bowl, which is what we usually get in the course of a whole year,” Keogh said. “Being in the game gets you into places that automobiles don’t normally get into, like the Today show ... and Charlie Rose.”

That increased exposure leads to a major boost in Web traffic as well. According to Keogh, AudiUSA.com enjoyed a 200 percent lift in impressions during the two-month period before and after the Super Bowl. The clip also scared up more than 1 million views on YouTube, thanks in part to its farcical nod to The Godfather’s celebrated horse-head reveal.

After the A6 spot hits, Audi will prop up the new Q5 with the aforementioned Oscars ad. The small SUV will also be featured throughout the 2009 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, which tips off March 19 on ESPN and CBS.

Another main event for Audi is the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Barack Obama. The company has signed on as the exclusive sponsor of streaming live coverage of the ceremony on ABCNews.com, CBSNews.com, MSNBC.com, and WashingtonPost.com, and has purchased an eight-page “Progress Is Beautiful” newspaper insert.

Audi reported that it moved 11,956 A6 units in 2008, flat versus the 12,001 cars it sold the previous year. Total US sales for the carmaker added up to 87,760 units, down just 6.1 percent versus 2007.

Audi practically tripled its ad spend in 2008, investing almost $90 million in measured media through October, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, up from $35 million the previous year.