Press Releases
11 September 2009
Bright White and a Big Heart: The Audi Stand at the IAA
- A celebration of 100 years of Audi with five world premieres in Frankfurt
- Brand provides insights into electric mobility of tomorrow
- 34 Audi vehicles across 6,000 square meters in Hall 3.0
INGOLSTADT/FRANKFURT, Germany — For Annkatrin Hentsch, it is akin to "time-lapse construction of a house." A project manager at AUDI AG, she oversees the setting-up of Audi's stand at the 63rd International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt. Following a year of preparations and some 55,000 hours of planning, her IAA team requires just 25 days of setting up to execute a stroke of genius both organizational and logistical in nature: As per a stringent schedule, 90 trucks transport several hundred metric tons of material to Frankfurt, where 300 fitters assemble everything.
The result: a gleaming white stand — 6,000 square meters in size (4,000 at ground level and 2,000 one storey up) — with a dazzling design to showcase 34 perfectly situated Audi vehicles. And this stand truly has a huge heart: In a ventricle not only illuminated via red and white LEDs but also 40 meters long and up to ten meters wide, several exhibits emphasize key Audi innovations such as TDI technology, lightweight design/construction, and Audi history. A chrome-polished R8 will get visitors' hearts pumping even faster.
Audi's appearance this year is certainly characterized by its centennial milestone. 55 Audi employees as well as 85 event hostesses/hosts will eagerly provide details to all interested visitors. Five world premieres await guests at the Audi stand. Along with the Audi S5 Sportback, for example, there will be the Audi R8 Spyder (the open version of the mid-engine sports car). The third highlight will be a preview of tomorrow's electric mobility. Additional pioneering vehicles to be unveiled at Frankfurt's IAA will be the Audi A4 3.0 TDI clean diesel and the Audi A3 1.2 TFSI.
The Audi stand spans 86 meters in length and 46 meters in width. Some 67 kilometers of cable ensure that everything is properly powered. The lighting truss weighs 39 metric tons and is 8.45 meters above the stand; 1,400 spotlights are suspended from it.
This puts each and every one of the 34 exhibition vehicles in the best possible light. Audi's trade-show specialists begin planning the configuration of spotlights months in advance and down to the millimeter so that no unwelcome reflections arise and that every perfectly positioned Audi's colors and contours are perfectly accentuated.
The same applies to the stand's steel structures, which weigh many tons and are precisely positioned by surveyors who use laser measurements. Everything must be 100 percent perfect. This is due to reasons of not only time but also safety: some 750,000 people are expected to visit the 2009 IAA! Stands must therefore be indisputably sound in design and execution.
Specialists toil night and day on Audi's IAA stand to adhere to the timetable. For Annkatrin Hentsch and her team, logistics constitute a particularly formidable challenge.
Several hundred metric tons of material must be transported to Frankfurt. And because a vast number of automotive manufacturers are all simultaneously setting up stands in the hall, all deliveries must be meticulously planned. It is precisely stipulated who may deliver what where and when.
Many of the materials required, from Audi pylons to waste baskets, are supplied by Audi's very own 17,000-square-meter trade-show warehouse in Ingolstadt. Everything that arrives at Hall 3.0 in Frankfurt must be immediately incorporated. There is no place to temporarily store anything. If just one truck arrives late, then the entire timetable is thrown into utter chaos.
Spanning 18,600 square meters, Hall 3.0 will allow all Volkswagen Group brands to present themselves under one roof. Audi's tastefully austere stand embodies Audi's brand values: sporty, progressive, and sophisticated. The brand with the four rings achieves this thanks to an IAA approach which is every bit efficient as it is award-winning.
Audi has nevertheless managed to execute a trade-show strategy which costs far less than that of its strategic competitors. A considerable amount of the materials Audi uses at a trade show, for example, will not simply be discarded, but rather re-used at future automotive exhibitions. It could be said that Audi relies on a modular trade-show framework — an assembly concept of sorts.
Audi's IAA Stand: Specs and Facts
- 6,000 square meters of overall floor space
- 4,000 m2 on ground floor; 900 m2 of elevated surfaces/ceilings
- 2,000 m2 upper floor
- 34 exhibition vehicles (5 of them world premieres)
- 2 vehicle lounges (quattro Lounge: 162 m², A5 Sportback Lounge: 85 m²)
- 3 catered lounges (309 m² altogether) with 150 seats
- 12 months of planning; 55,000 hours of planning
- 90 truck loads
- 300 people on set-up team
- 24/7 set-up
- 25 days of setting-up
- 560 m2 glass façade
- 230 metric tons of steel
- 67 km of cables
- 39 metric tons suspended from the Hall's ceiling
- 8.45 meters: height of the lighting truss's lower edge
- 3 km of truss crossbeams
- 1,400 spotlights
- 2,000 KW power output
- Highlight LED: 14 meters wide and up to 4.70 m high
- Highlight LED with 2,101,248 Surface-Mount Devices (pixels)
- Heart of Audi: 40 meters long and up to 10 m wide
- Heart of Audi with approx. 1,500 LED panels (á 16x16 LED points)
- 19 different exhibits, incl. 2 cutaway engines
- Various floor coverings: laminate, genuine wood veneer, aluminum, anodized-aluminum panels, concrete scrap, glass, carpet
- 95 meters of leather-covered seating in Heart of Audi; 7 staircases
- 25 offices and conference rooms
- 16 climate-control units
- 85 event hostesses/hosts
- 55 Audi employees
Philosophy of the Stand
In 2009, as in the past, Audi will present itself in gleaming white in Hall 3.0 at the Frankfurt Exhibition Grounds. Audi's IAA stand is divided into two solitary carcasses, with a multilane road in the middle.
Visitors can access the stand via one of two routes. Visitors who opt for the road will encounter — prominently displayed in the white center lane — a milestone in Audi's 100-year history: a streamlined Auto Union C racing car. This historic vehicle sets the stage for Audi's sporty S models. Visitors are guided through the stand by a track of red LEDs with steles, which bring to life one highlight after another from Audi's celebrated history by means of integrated vehicles and films.
Alternatively, visitors can traverse the stupendous Heart of Audi — which beats red, then white, then red again. The Heart is a perfect stage, with a chrome-polished R8 up and off to the left. In the rather enclosed right side, Audi underpins its brand essence, Vorsprung durch Technik ("progress through technology"), with Heart exhibits: quattro, TDI Engine Technology, Lightweight Design/Construction, and Heritage. The lighting and the Audi heartbeat integrated into the stand's overall acoustics constitute a readily perceptible driving force throughout the entire stand.
This portal offers visitors an excellent vantage point over the road to the stunning highlight stage, where the R8 Spyder and this year's show car will be unveiled. These two world premieres will be illuminated by an LED wall — 15 meters in length and up to 5 meters in height, and evocative of an R8's headlights — which will symbolize Audi's lighting-design superiority.
The path takes visitors past both world premieres via a public gallery with seats and the efficiency park up to the technology park, in which the Audi brand's focus on tomorrow is illustrated by means of exhibits and films. The adjacent catered lounges featuring different designs offer clear views of the entire stand and Audi's spectacular fleet.
