Elevating Interactivity

Audi’s new digital showroom is a small but important step forward for automotive retail.  I’ve worked with several brands over the years in auto show environments where car companies invest millions in elaborate, teched out “booths” but at the end of the day they have a hard time realizing a measurable ROI on their investment. Most continue doing it year after year to keep up with their competitors.   Audi is one of the first to seriously think about how digital out of home technology can improve the customer experience in dealer, which is where I think it really matters. In Dealer and In Home are where decisions are made, In Show basically functions as a top funnel awareness driver.

The Digital Showroom is a blend of dynamic digital signage and interactive technologies. This video from SEEN MEDIA shows a brief interior fly through of a dealership mockup.  Here you can see the Audi TV and Presentation Element digital signage systems.  Both are flat panel LCD displays attached to a flexible, centralized system of content that is broadcast over a global network of screens allowing Audi’s story be localized for market differences. This alone is an obvious operational efficiency over physical signage and an ROI win for Audi but what about the customers.

An overwhelmingly large percentage of customers use online car configuration applications to begin their shopping journey.  To leverage this behavior in dealer, Neueu Digitale adapted the classic web version into a Microsoft Surface application. This is the only interactive element in the Digital Showroom and for the most part they got it right (I would be happier with 2 out of 4 digital elements being interactive).

I applaud the use of rich 3D graphics and the UX design feels more touch and then web but I still have my concerns with the overall experience.  I’ve mentioned before that MS Surface is basically a single user, multitouch experience, maybe a 1.5 person experience with 1 driver working together with a .5 semi-active passenger riding shotgun (I had to get in at least one car analogy).  If I’m being totally honest, there are very few applications that warrant a single user multitouch interaction model and I’m not convinced this is one. Towards the end of this video when the second user joins the interaction, you can start to feel the limitations of a table form factor and how two people can’t really use it simultaneously from apposing sides unless it’s a larger screen surface.

One thing I love about this experience is the use of the Audi branded aluminum tokens as a physical interface element.  Surface does an amazing job at recognizing objects by using its five internally mounted IR cameras to read super small fiducials printed on the bottom of objects placed on screen. This blend of physical interaction with a digital screen is very satisfying.  Except for these tokens, most of the interactions could be programmed with a traditional single touch technology.

As always, I have a few suggestions for version 2.0 …

1)   I’d like to see the in dealer Surface system connect to previously saved cars that customers started online from home so its not a complete redo.  Maybe Audi can mail customers their own token after their web car configuration is complete as a hook to lure them into the dealer.

2)   I’d also like to see the reverse, the ability for prospective customers to take their Audi token home with them post dealer visit and pull up the saved car via the web site by entering the numeric code on the bottom of the token.

I’ve always found it concerning and bit ironic that the automotive industry has an easier time getting millions of people to pay $15 to explore their cars at a public auto show vs. getting them into a dealer for a private showing of the same cars for free.  Audi’s Digital Showroom is one step towards solving that problem.