Male Opps: Audi taps new CMO (Score 62)

Sales Lead: Effective September 2023, Emilie Cotter is the CMO and head of brand marketing and communications at Audi.

• Cotter joined the company in September 2020 and was most recently its chief communications officer.
• She succeeds incumbent Tara Rush, with whom Audi parted ways in July 2023.
• This move streamlines brand strategy, marketing, and external communications in order to bolster growth and shift toward a future of electric vehicles.
• The company will likely:
  • Shift strategy spend
    • This will likely involve more brand partnerships and bolstering experiential efforts
  • Return to higher ​​​​​​​spend
  • Conduct agency reviews
• Target demographic: 
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Gen-Z and millennials with a strong male skew

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: Audi has spent approximately $22.3m on national TV commercials YTD, 8% less than the approximately $24.3m spent by this point last year.
  • Last year: The company spent around $43m on this channel in 2022 after having spent 26% more, around $54m, in 2021.
  • 2023 ad programming: Audi's 2023 commercials have targeted male sports enthusiasts watching shows such as NBA Basketball, NHL Hockey, MLB Baseball, NFL Football, and Shark Tank.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, the automaker has allocated roughly $4.8m toward digital ads, 9% less than the roughly $5.3m allocated within the same 2022 timeframe.
  • YTD data: Audi has earned about 591m digital impressions YTD via YouTube (34%), Facebook (32%), Instagram (22%), and desktop display (12%) ads.
  • Last year: The company's estimated full-year 2022 spend decreased by 40% to $7.5m from that of $12.4m in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The company utilizes Google Ads along with print, radio, OOH, digital, local broadcast, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and online video (via Youtube Android, Youtube IOS, and Youtube.com) ads.
  • Audi sponsors podcasts such as The Daily, The Ben Shapiro Show, NPR News Now, The Glenn Beck Program, and Dateline NBC.
  • Audi has also been establishing and expanding various sponsorships (example here).
  • Finally, the company invests in short-form DRTV ads.
    • It has incredibly highly concentrated network TV coverage and will not likely launch a new campaign soon.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Promoted CMOs often conduct agency reviews, so reach out soon to get on Cotter's radar.
• Current agency roster:
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Ogilvy NY: Creative AOR (May 2022)
  • PHD USA: Media AOR
  • Endeavor - Chicago: Experiential AOR (February 2019)
  • Team Epiphany: PR and multicultural agency partner
  • Fast Horse: PR agency partner
  • The Designory: Digital agency partner (May 2019)

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser; DRTV insights by Media Analytics.