Audi's New Direction: An Interview with Scott Keogh, Vice President of Marketing for AOA

Audi should advertise how the R8 will be faster than any BMW around the Ring. They should also advertise how the RS4 out-accelerates the current M3.

Audi needs to advertise how they defeat MB and BMW, not how they are trying to be like them.

A good post about actual Audi info--from Audi. Nice job.

The concern is, this guy's been at Audi 5 minutes and already he's dancing around the issues. "I like to refer to challenges as opportunities..." Please. Carlos Goshn would call them challenges, and then solve them.

It was nice how Fourtitude called them challenges again in the very next question.

Keogh admits they don't have the "level of resources" to spend on marketing Audi. A new ad agency might help, but it takes actual dollars to get an image in America. Also, with Audi's middle-of-the-road management, would they allow a brilliant edgy ad campaign like Mini (done on a shoestring budget) to happen to their brand?

Doubtful given their past ad efforts, but it would be nice to be proven wrong.

As the head of Audi's SoCal real estate division, I find myself often weilding vast amounts of persuasive power. Next week I'm going to be flown to German in order to direct a round table discussion on the future of Audi with its board of directors and CEO.

EL.. tell them to make better cars than the shitty ones they make today.. it may help your realestate business.

i think German Nut is coming unglued again. better than BMW? you just dont give up do you buddy...

AmazingBimmer, gain some balls, gain some cash and then realize who your dealing with. A current Audi driver and soon to be a BMW driver.

Giving up?

Why should I give up on a brand that makes all other German brands better?

In the end it's better for you and its better for me.

"Ohh... You are so busted! A soon to be BMW owner??? You wrote in another article as a responce to logical that you had several BMWs... OOOOPS! You just sold your two (?!) 745Li's and bought an Audi and then went back to BMW?!?"

No, his family owns quite a few high-level BMWs, such as an M5, X5 4.8is, etc, I think. He himself owns an A4 2.0T quattro, but is buying a 335i coupe.

Listen you BMW whorebag, we will have owned and driven more BMWs than probably anyone on this website.

My advocacy for Audi, is due to the fact that by releasing cars such as the R8 and RS4 they FORCE BMW to become better.

If there was not 420 horsepower in the RS4, do you think BMW would have dropped a V8 into the M3 and raised it's horsepower to above the 400 mark?

The answer is no, BMW would not have placed a V8 into the M3 because it was already fine against the competition with an I6. That is not the case anymore because some company known as Audi decided to throw a NA, V8 wth 420 horsepower into their A4.

That is why you are going to see the M3 that you will in a few years.

The R8 is the reason why you will see a BMW M1, M10, Z9 or second generation Z8 also.

nut..who is "we"?. your parents?

"We" is the family. Myself, parents and the rest of the family.

I liked just about everything Scott Keogh had to say about marketing Audi in the USA. He addressed a lot of the frustrations Audi fans have voiced about the less-than-stellar marketing Audi has had until recently. Sounds like the right guy to make some changes, and this is the best time to do it while Audi is beginning to role out their new products.

So many companies have had creative ads lately (Mini, Toyota Yaris, Honda Fit, VW GTI, do you notice a trend here??? small cars). If Audi strikes the same kind of chord in an Audi-like way, there's a possibility of a huge success here.

It looks like they realize that there are advertising problems. Hopefuly they will be fixed.

"GermanNut, BMW dropping the V8 in the M3 is not due to the RS4. THere is more to that."

Not really. The S4 and RS4's sweet V8s left BMW in the dust. If Audi had kept utilizing the 2.7T engine in the B5 S4, then BMW wouldn't be using a V8. Competition is healthy- BMW didn't copy Audi, they just want to beat them. You can at least admit that.

"Now, Mercedes has been dropping V8's in its C class AMG models since the 90's, so if one could argue which manufacturer who influenced BMW to put a V8 in their M3, it would be Mercedes. BMW was being tired of being out-torqued, and out muscled."

This, too, is false. The C55 is not even close to being as good as the M3- but the RS4 is better than both, which prompted BMW's upcoming, V8-powered response.

"If Audi hadn't launched the RS4 BMW probably wouldn't have spent the money developing a new M3 motor! It is correct that a V8 would have been the natural step up from the S54 I6! But this is, sort of, a product of the RS4!"

Exactly.

I saw a black RS4 today... I was in my Cabriolet and we played a little. That's an amazing car. Too bad I can't flip mine, because I'd miss the convertible...