Audi A3 adverts to 'dominate'

Audi’s new third-generation A3 Sportback will be launched in Australia this weekend with the help of one of the most audacious advertising campaigns the luxury car-maker has ever undertaken.

Audi's multi-million-dollar advertising splurge aims to ensure the new A3 will be almost everywhere its hip, young, ambitious and tech-savvy target audience turns.

Television, website, social media, magazine, newspaper, billboard and tram/train/bus stop advertising is planned, as are interactive websites and iPad apps, 3D cinema commercials, art installations and, in an industry first, elevator 'wraps'.

Audi Australia's General Manager of Marketing, Kevin Goult, says Audi will "go big" with its A3 Sportback communications, which are in step with the global campaigns for its most direct competitors, the new Mercedes-Benz A-Class and BMW’s 1 Series.

"Were going to go big -- in fact it’s enormous," says Goult. "The marketing activity for Australia is unique -- it's for the Australian customer. We've taken elements of the global campaign but the idea is 'ahead of its class'.

"We will have a mass reaching TV campaign -- it will be domination.

"We will have a 3D experience in cinemas, we will have an urban environment where you'll see more A3 outdoor [adverts] than you've ever seen before," enthused Goult.

"We've attributed $5 million worth of marketing for the A3 campaign. This is a significant campaign for Audi and it's a significant spend for outdoor [billboards etc]. In fact it's our biggest outdoor campaign ever run."

The 'ahead of its class' A3 advertising campaign will be backed up with an "engaging" Daft Punk soundtrack and, on top of an iPad app that lets users see what the car would look like in their driveway or carpark, the car will be spruiked inside workplaces and malls via lift 'wraps'.

"This is something new for Audi," says Goult of the lift wraps, which cover the doors of the lift with the exterior of the car, and the inside of the lift with the interior of the A3.

"Our target audience is busy and never at home. This is our opportunity to tackle them when they're doing what they love, which is obviously their work," he said.

Another unlikely avenue is the VIVID festival in Sydney, an evening event described as "light, music and ideas" that sees the Sydney Opera House transformed every night for a month.

Audi will have its own light-based art installation and though Goult says the iconic Audi rings won't be shown, "we will make sure it's distinctively an Audi," he stated.

Audi Australia Managing Director Andrew Doyle denied the huge advertising spend across diverse mediums was overkill, saying it's money well spent.

"This is not just a small launch -- this is a massive launch for us. We invented the segment in 1996, this is the third generation -- it's a whole new model from ground up. So we allocate appropriate budgets from a communications point of view to get the message out there," he said.

Doyle said the 'ahead of its class' campaign was not designed to undermine the sell-out success of the new A-Class either, adding that the marketing campaign is "what we would have always planned".

Audi has already revealed a $35,600 admission price for the new A3 (down $5600), lining it up directly against the A-Class.

Apart from the base 1.4 TFSI, the five-door-only A3 Sportback line-up will include 1.6 TDI, 1.8 TFSI and 2.0 TDI variants, with a variable-displacement 1.4 TFSI and S3 Sportback to follow in October, A3 and S3 sedans due here in early 2014 and the plug-in hybrid A3 e-tron expected Down Under by the end of next year.

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