• by Karl Greenberg , April 8, 2009

This year, Audi plans a marketing campaign aimed at getting U.S. consumers to consider diesel, not just as a powertrain but as a cause.

Scott Keogh, chief marketing officer for the Herndon, Va.-based Audi of America, says Audi will introduce turbo direct injection (TDI)clean diesel engines in the U.S. this year with an emotional appeal that is also intended to continue Audi's brand-building efforts in the U.S.

The company has already begun seeding the market with PR efforts and a 90-minute film about Audi's Le Mans racing program that is about the human drama of the race but carries a subtext that Audi diesel means quiet, high-performance engines. The film aired on ESPN last month and will run on other channels, per Keogh, but the company also just launched the film "The Truth in 24" online via a deal with iTunes.

The program puts the movie on several content download pages on iTunes and is complemented by a digital game for iPhone that lets people "drive" the TDI formula car by manipulating their digital phones.

"TDI will hit the marketplace in a couple of months, so we have been doing lots of public relations around driving events and racing programs," he says. There are 90 or so Audi Q7 TDI vehicles in the U.S. that Audi is giving to "key influencers" to borrow for a month. Keogh says Audi's program for touting diesel is unique.

"Philosophically what we are trying to do is avoid the mistake the competition has made in selling diesel as a feature, an option," he says. "But since it is really a new way of life for most people, you have to elevate it beyond a feature. The best analogy I can think of for this is the idea of a cause: you might have a cause you believe in -- lower taxes, say -- and that will be the basis for your choice of candidate. We want to make diesel a cause."

He would not go into the details of the campaign, but said the top-line message would be emotional: that driving diesel saves money and helps preserve oil.

Keogh says that ultimately, the campaign must center on the Audi brand. "We want to move from the great unknown to the great known [luxury auto brand]."