An Advertising Age editor talks with Audi's director of brand marketing and innovation about how interactive marketing has evolved the car company's campaigns to the next level.

Audi Director of Brand Marketing and Innovation Stephen Berkov got Audi cars plenty of screen time last year in shows like TNT's "The Closer" and campaigns like "Art of The Heist." His innovative campaigns span across multiple platforms such as online, videos, blogs, entertainment, print, outdoor and live events to connect with consumers.

The "Art of The Heist" campaign included a technique known as alternative reality gaming, in which a community of users became a part of the story, interacted with the characters, and helped each other solve the mystery.

"Creating the thriller on the internet which involved our new A3 engaged our target customer in the Audi brand," said Berkov.

More than 200,000 people became involved with the search for the stolen A3 in a single day, according to statistics compiled by McKinney-Silver. An estimated 500,000 people were involved in the search on an ongoing basis. Within the first few days of the campaign launch, seven fan sites were created and website traffic to www.audiusa.com also spiked dramatically.

During this session, Ad Age's Marc Graser sits down with Audi's Stephen Berkov to discuss how interactive marketing has evolved Audi campaigns to the next level.

Bios:
As director of brand marketing and innovation at Audi of America, Inc., Stephen Berkov is setting new standards for the European brand here in the United States. With Audi for more than seven years, Berkov joined the company in the United States in September, 2004. Prior to that, he was part of a forward-thinking management team in Germany with the parent company, AUDI AG, as well as Audi Japan KK, their subsidiary in Tokyo. His grand mission is to see empowered and gratified Audi drivers in S4 Cabriolets headed West on Sunset Boulevard toward the Pacific Coast Highway-- as well as in their landscape-clad driveways in the suburbs, on the ground level of their city lofts and on curbsides everywhere across America.

Marc Graser is the editor of Advertising Age's newsletter Madison & Vine, which covers the business of branded entertainment, and reports for Advertising Age. He is based in Los Angeles. Graser was formerly a senior writer at Daily Variety and Variety, where he covered the movie studios Warner Bros., MGM, DreamWorks and Revolution Studios, as well as post production, entertainment marketing and branded entertainment, animation, video games and technology. He also held the titles of film reporter, technology editor and editor of eV while at the papers.

Note: Our podcast theme was written by Derek K. Miller. Visit him online at penmachine.com.

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Speaker(s): Marc Graser, Editor of Madison & Vine and Reporter for Advertising Age (interviewer); Stephen Berkov, Director, Brand Marketing and Innovation, Audi of America, Inc. (interviewee)

Format: 39:36, 36.2 MB, MP3