Audi UK mulls partnering with brands for co-created content

Speaking to The Drum following a Think With Google Live session last week, Kristian Dean, national content manager at Audi UK, said that while the company has made no “hard or fast” decisions about partnering up with other brands, he said that it is a move that could open up new opportunities for Audi’s content push.

“It’s early days yet and we’re still exploring,” he commented. “We’ve got a lot to do in terms of our content requirements…We haven’t made any hard or fast [decisions] but it is certainly something that we’re looking at.

"Like-minded brands do exist and there are huge opportunities there. Most people in the UK now have a car and you think, ‘where do these people shop? Where do they go on holiday? Where do they stay? What do they eat, what do they drink?’ There must be some really strong connections there in terms of overlaps and that’s where I’d really like to explore."

Dean said that any partnerships wouldn’t be a "clunky cross-sale piece", rather a "seamless" blend of brands that feel appropriate to Audi and its customers.

The car marque has four areas that it will look to focus its branded content on in 2015, including its Quattro model, its sustainability and efficiency programme Ultra, performance arm Audi Sport and the Audi RS brand.

Some of that content will look to "draw back the curtain" and show the "human" side to the brand, which Dean admitted is something Audi UK has shied away from in the past.

“The strength of the Audi brand has been built up over many, many years, and it has traded off its engineering excellence. We’ve deliberately shunned featuring too many people and every-day stories and narratives in our commercials and the brand has succeeded and been incredibly popular without that.

"But there is so much passion for this brand… we did a campaign for the new TT [model] at the end of last year and we went over to the factory and interviewed some of the designers and the engineers behind the car.

"They really transfer their enthusiasm through the camera to the viewer. Whereas you’d normally think going to a factory and talking to an engineer is pretty specialist, the way these guys talked about the cars was actually a lot more engaging than we expected. It’s more [about] that kind of thing really; to pull the curtain to one side and really show the passion behind the brand."

Speaking about the now-closed Audi TV platform, which launched in 2013, Dean admitted that Audi hadn’t "geared up" to create and sustain enough content to meet consumer demands. The car marque now serves its content via YouTube and other existing platforms.

"We did experiment with Audi TV a few years ago but I think the problem was that the business hadn’t really geared up to serve and create the content required," he admitted. "Your own TV channel is a beast and we just didn’t have the resource to keep feeding it. Although the initial audiences were pretty strong, unless you can continue to create the type of content that audiences want, people will go elsewhere."

Fellow panellist Nick Cohen, managing partner and head of content at Mediacom, who will soon take up a new role as vice president of content strategy at Little Dot Studios, said that as branded content continues to charge forward many agencies are struggling to adapt to accommodate the change.

"I think all agencies are struggling to reinvent themselves and evolve in the face of a rapidly changing media environment," he said. "Some are doing a very good job, others are struggling a bit more, but the speed of change is something that is very hard to deal with at times."

He added that agencies need to blend production with an "inherent mindset" about the constant updating of a brand channel.

Hosted by The Drum Works managing director Justin Pearse, the panel also consisted of Susan Aglaita, head of brand content at YouTube and Ben Hooper, head of content at Karmarama.