Showcase

The Brief
The original brief was to create and launch a new online magazine in the UK, targeting Audi prospects at the early part of the customer relationship journey, introducing them to the brand and driving initial relationship building and data response.  As Audi's customer magazine publisher, Northstar was commissioned to develop the concept, generate all editorial and creative elements, manage the site's design and build and instigate tracking and research.

The Challenge

The new online magazine needed to engage prospects, recognise the early stages of customer behaviour and initiate interest and awareness in Audi to launch the customer relationship.  Traditionally at the initial stage customers would receive a sales or loyalty device - and invariably too many sales messages too early.  The online magazine needed to switch the focus to an editorial element to capture interest, focusing on stimuli and engagement, in the courting stage of the Audi/customer relationship.  The site needed to give an immediate insight into the brand in an accessible and welcoming forum which is friendly, warm, stimulating and full of discoveries.

The key considerations while developing the creative concept were:

• consistency with all Audi marketing, particularly with their brand values and their tone of voice in talking to customers
• provide clear, uncluttered layouts that are welcoming and simple to navigate
• draw on the web's ability to be intuitive
• develop unique and engaging editorial content
• refine a method for personalising the greeting of new customers and personalising the content they receive
• repurpose the content of the Audi Magazine and of Audi TV
• create synergy between this new magazine website and the main audi.co.uk website

Editorial Response
The Solution

Northstar's approach was as follows:

1. The prospect database is divided into segments based on car model interest. Each set of customers are then sent a personalized email, with a click-through link to the latest issue of the online magazine.

2. When the customer lands on the site, the magazine loads with the ‘magazine cover' smoothly gliding in from the right, ‘towing' the other pages like a train.

3. The cover then expands until it dominates the window, and a semi-transparent ‘x' appears. When you click this, the cover shrinks into scale with the rest of the magazine.

4. This is merely an introduction to the site. Now a series of images appear in equal size along the bottom of the page. These are the features for the magazine, ten in total with the tenth story being bespoke for that prospect group (ie RS6 story for RS6 prospects). This shows very easily targeted bespoke editorial at work for different prospect groups.

5. When the mouse moves over these images, each story expands as though a magnifying glass
is being passed over it, and a headline or quote appears as a ‘teaser' to the story. When the reader clicks a magnified page, it expands to the full ‘read' status and the other pages fade behind it. To reveal the rest of the story, the reader hovers the mouse over the spread, and a navigational arrow appears pointing down. Readers follow their own path.

6. When clicked, the next page slides up, and continues with each down-arrow click until the end of the story (like a series of vertical postcards). Some stories are short with just a few pages, some much longer with video content and animation included. The pages are really easy to navigate and use with bold typography and beautiful imagery. This offers a menu of interest with instant navigability rather than a one-paced page by page click-through.

7. At the end of each story, the reader has the option of clicking into further boxes for specification, brochure and test drive requests, and there are other links to audi.co.uk, etc. All of the customer activity online is tracked through Google Analytics along with content viewed and time spent on site.

The key is it that it feels like Audi work, and the approach blends in with all other marketing activity, setting new standards for an online magazine website in the motoring industry.  It is very Vorsprung Durch Technik.

Results

• Northstar successfully had the site built and approved by Audi within an eight week timescale
• It was launched straight after the Geneva Motor Show. The site included news content from the show from the day before the launch.
• Other European territories are looking to import the editorial ideas and use a magazine site to market to prospects.
• Every page visit is tracked through Google Analytics. These very early figures show the immediate success of the site with over 10,000 visitors (17% of those emailed) viewing an average of 17 pages. This is instant research showing performance of the site by segments, revealing which targets view which features and laying bare the effectiveness of variable content. The highly measurable nature of such an online project is part of its appeal to the client as there is total transparency about editorial effectiveness. Links to brochure requests, test drive requests and visits to audi.co.uk are also being tracked (results soon) so the site's ROI becomes clear.
• Audi is extremely pleased with the site and has fully endorsed it.  "Only a company which has the feel for our business and deep understanding of our brand that Northstar has could have created such appropriate and effective online editorial content for us." (Kris Giffen, CRM Manager Audi UK)
• Audi are committed to a quarterly frequency of the online magazine going forward
• This is a unique and genuinely innovative format for a motoring online magazine. Most automotive brands have gone down the page turner route and they appear somewhat indistinguishable and homogenous. Audi's magazine site is unique and ground-breaking.

 For more, please go to http://audi-magazine.co.uk/