• by Karl Greenberg , August 26, 2009

Audi has created a pair of documentary videos as part of its sponsorship of the "Youth Mobile 2030" Los Angeles Design Challenge, a program pitting Southern California auto design studios from the likes of Audi, Hyundai, Honda and Toyota against each other. The winners of the "Youth Mobile 2030" will be named at the show, which opens Dec. 4.

The videos, by TurnHere, a video marketing firm, show young Audi designers at work while talking -- sometimes in voiceover -- about their design philosophies and visions for the future of the automobile. One highlights "Design Center California," Audi's Santa Monica design shop for North America. It also focuses on Jae Min, who is chief designer at the studio. "Form doesn't necessarily follow ... nor does it precede function," he says at one point. "It all has to be present at the same time." Cut to an Audi A4 zooming down a road. The other offers glimpses and quotes of a raft of Audi designers.

The three- and-a-half-minute videos promote the Design Challenge to, as one Audi engineer says in the video, "design a car for people who haven't even been born yet." Both videos show designers doing their thing with clay, paper, computers, and mock-ups.

Audi is using both videos to encourage Facebook fans to participate in Team Audi's effort, and follow-up discussion questions solicit specific feedback, such as "How will your car play a role in keeping you connected to your digital world in the future?"

"The videos showcase some of the things we do behind the scenes; they are about things that don't fit into standard storytelling but add context to how we are encouraging young designers," says Brad Stertz, manager of corporate communications for Audi of America. "It's adding context through video," he tells Marketing Daily.

He says the videos are on Audi USA, Facebook, and YouTube. They have designers giving their view of what transportation should look like in 2030; the second video focuses on Audi's Santa Monica, Calif., design center.

"It's talking more about the vision of the design, and it's about getting social media behind-the-scenes access." He says Audi may do similar behind-the-scenes videos around the brand's involvement with professional skiing and ski events that Audi sponsors. "We may do social media videos of a similar nature for them as well -- it gives more context for people whether press, media, or consumers."

Audi says it has about 300,000 Facebook fans. "Right now we are only behind Porsche in terms of the number of Facebook fans we have," says Stertz. "We have been pushing this a lot lately; since early this year our growth [in Facebook fans] is up 15%."