• by Karl Greenberg , August 3, 2011

Audi has gotten more mileage out of Hollywood in recent years than the cast of "Entourage," getting fleet vehicles at big-time events like the Golden Globe awards, the Oscars, and the American Film Institute festival. It has had its cars in movies, held a-lister parties, and generally tried to get as much bang for its relatively small marketing buck as possible among left-coast influencers.

The latest: Audi has signed on to be the official automotive partner of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, taking the mantle from Nissan Motors' Infiniti luxury marque, which was official sponsor last year. Audi will activate across a number of events leading up to the awards, and on the Sept. 18 broadcast itself at the Nokia Theater at L.A. Live. The show, on Fox, is to be produced by Mark Burnett and hosted by Jane Lynch.

Audi says the deal represents a multi-year partnership executed across several platforms starting with sponsorship of events leading up to the Emmys and spotlighting nominees. Among those events are the "Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards" on Sept. 10, the Red Carpet rollout for the telecast, the Governor's Ball preview on Sept. 14, and the Performers' Nominee Reception on Sept. 16.

The company will ferry attendees of the Emmy events in a fleet of its vehicles. As it did for last year's Emmys (despite Infiniti's official status) and again early this year for the Golden Globes, the brand will host a pre-Emmy Awards fête at West Hollywood's Cecconi's.

As the party falls on Sept. 11, Audi says it will donate proceeds to Tuesday's Children, a service organization for people affected by the 2001 terrorist strikes, including the families of victims and first responders.

Audi has also sponsored the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and has had the A8 driven by Robert Downey, Jr. in the "Iron Man" movies. According to its own data, Audi is now the second-most-considered luxury auto brand. The company has been focusing on its high-end cars like the A6 (shown at the Detroit auto show this year and coming to U.S. dealerships late summer or fall), its flagship A8 sedan that it introduced in November, and the A7 -- all of which were about 13% of the sales mix earlier this year. CMO Scott Keogh has said he wants to see those premium vehicles constitute a quarter of all Audi sales in the U.S. by 2015.

Audi of America, based in Herdon, Va., hit record sales in July, delivering 9,146 vehicles. The company says the previous record was 7,974 vehicles in the same month in 2001. Audi says this is also the seventh consecutive month of record-setting sales in the U.S. market. In the first seven months this year, Audi's volume is up 15.6%.