Nikki Warburton

AUDI Australia will change its tone of voice in a new marketing strategy to launch alongside an unprecedented stretch of model rollouts running until the end of next year.

Speaking to GoAutoNews Premium at the A7 Sportback media launch in Brisbane, Audi Australia chief marketing officer Nikki Warburton was upbeat about the premium brand’s standing following her return after a two-decade absence.

“I think it’s such a strong brand, (and) obviously a strong global brand,” she said. “For me, is it a different brand than it was 20 years ago? Absolutely.

“Just the sheer nature of the amazing product that we’ve got to work with, (and the) 12 new-model launches next year, is pretty exciting. So I think there’s a great opportunity to elevate the brand yet again.”

Audi Australia will launch its Q8 large SUV in December, and the RS5 Sportback mid-size liftback and A6 large car in the first quarter of next year, while the A1 light hatch is set to lob in the second quarter.

The Q3 small SUV and e-tron battery-electric vehicle will arrive in mid- and late 2019 respectively.

Ms Warburton indicated that the marketing strategy for the new models would be play a key role in improving Audi Australia’s sales, which are down 9.3 per cent to the end of October this year.

“For me, it’s about how can we ensure that we maximise those product launches so we’ve got a consistent message in market next year, and making sure that we really connect with Australians.

Audi E-tron

“Even though the heritage of the brand is so important – and the engineering, and the quality and the premium nature – it’s how do we make sure to get those brand connections with these new-product launches next year.”

Ms Warburton revealed that four brand principles – progress, luxury, technology and design – would be pushed as part of the new marketing campaigns that will likely benefit from an injection of fun.

“We’re doing a lot of work around our tone of voice,” she said.

“It’s still a work in progress for us. The main thing with the tone of voice is just ensuring it does connect in this market, so maybe just not taking ourselves so seriously.

“We’re describing it as ‘luxury can have a smile’. We’re still working on exactly how we bring that to life, but that’s the current progress.”

Audi Australia’s most important new model next year will be the e-tron battery electric vehicle (BEV) and Ms Warburton said that work needed to be done over the next 12 months to address ongoing customer concerns related to BEVs.

“There’s a lot more of the education phase,” she said. “I’m sure every market in the world has that.

“It’s making sure that we’re nurturing the market and understanding the barriers to entry. We’ve got time to address … those consumer barriers early.

“We’re prospecting already, so we’re feeding information out into the market, collecting (interested) people’s data and information and then just ensuring that we’re … addressing some of the educational aspects of electric cars.”

Ms Warburton added that it is too early to detail the specific marketing campaign for the e-tron but some plans are already in place.

Ms Warburton added that it is too early to detail the specific marketing campaign for the e-tron but some plans are already in place.

“At the moment, we’re still at the early stages of that, but we’ll be creating little videos and content pieces whereby we can start addressing those things for people.

“It’s like anything new, everyone’s a bit hesitant until … you start addressing it that way.”

By Justin Hilliard

Audi E-tron