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Those of us who brave the M4 on our daily commute into London everyday have watched with interest over the past months as West London Audi have built their new flagship £30m building quite literally a stone’s throw from the edge of the elevated section of the motorway.
We have wondered why it was built so high, what all of the glass was for and how they could possibly manage to utilise all of the space that the seven storeys gave them. Well now we know – the building has been built as a huge advertising hoarding. The floor level with the motorway houses all of the latest models and the top floor a number of iconic Audi cars from its incredible motoring heritage. Both of these floors are directly visible for motorists driving into and out of London.
The outcome of this, as any commuter who drives into London can attest, is that traffic quite literally now slows to a virtual standstill as it passes the new beacon of the Audi brand and drivers of various other marques gaze longingly at the shiny new Q7s, R8s and S4s before attaining normal road speed as the building disappears in their rear view mirror and they wonder what they are doing in their aged and not so shiny Fords and Vauxhalls.
A clever way to communicate and advertise the Audi brand or an unanticipated by-product of placing a seven storey car show room next to one of the busiest motorway stretches in the UK? Whichever it is and I am sure that Audi will plump for the former, the impact on the traffic in West London has been incredible.
It also serves as a great illustration of how to place a brand into the everyday lives of thousands of people and how it can effectively become part of the fabric of society. It is in marked contrast to the traditional DM and advertising approaches used by so many others and could mark a change in the definition of ‘brand architecture’.
As with all of these things there are always pretenders and I notice that Mercedes are building a new showroom right next to the new Audi temple. The only problem is that if they want to have the same impact and compete with their German rivals then someone needs to tell them that they need to put a couple of extra storeys on it. It won’t be me though, I can’t cope with another 30 minutes added to an already extended journey time.
