As part of Audi’s Central Launch Training in Winter 2015, Designliga, the Munich-based bureau for visual communication and interior design, designed a multi-sensory product show for AUDI AG’s Trade Marketing employees. Designliga developed the idea, script and scenography for “Audi Secret Labs” and was responsible for realization of the cross-disciplinary presentation, in which architecture and graphic design, multimedia elements, moving images and acting blend into a fully integrated brand experience.
With around 12,000 attendees from 40 countries, CLT is AUDI AG’s core market launch training element for national and international trade marketing staff. It is conducted in groups of 200 participants per day over a period of almost three months. The culmination of the two-day training, held in Munich, is an emotion-driven product presentation of previously unreleased vehicles.
Interalpen-Hotel Tyrol, a monumental building complex at an altitude of 1,300 metres, was chosen as the location for the 2015 product presentation. This stunning backdrop formed the setting for a vehicle presentation involving top-secret confidentiality, secret vehicles and the company security operations of AUDI AG at the heart of the Austrian Alps. Associations with James Bond immediately spring to mind; black-suited security guards, hidden laboratories and subterranean facilities. The inspiration for the concept of Audi Secret Labs.
Audi Secret Labs
Audi Secret Labs are a top-secret complex of subterranean laboratories carved into the mountain below the hotel, where Audi has worked on advancing automotive development for many, many years. Attendees of CLT 2015 receive a world-exclusive glimpse into this ultra-confidential world of Audi, joining the inner circle of a tight-knit community of the initiated.
Interdisciplinary, integrated product presentation
Within only a few weeks, the indoor tennis court of the hotel and adjoining areas were transformed into the imaginary world of Audi Secret Labs. The architectural framework of the presentation hall translated AUDI’s three-dimensional language of form into the character of an underground laboratory. Graphic and audio-visual elements fleshed out the laboratory setting, creating the impression of a complex extending deep and far beneath the hotel, with countless levels and long test tracks. The overall script incorporated all the essential aspects of vehicle presentation and the roles of the staff into the story.
The script of the presentation allows the audience to listen in on a dialogue between Professor Edge, Head of Engineering at Audi Secret Labs, and Security, represented by a female voiceover. They witness the removal of a suspected spy from amid the audience, hear Professor Edge revealing more and more of Audi Secret Labs’ ultra-confidential innovations of the future in his enthusiasm over the vehicles, and finally watch Professor Edge himself being hauled off by the security service. Any recollection of the strictly confidential information must now be wiped from the minds of the audience; this is achieved by “neuralyzing” its members, and the subsequent evening event programme at Interalpen-Hotel “overwrites” their memories.
