In the car: Kaufland advertising on the navigation display – that’s what Audi says

Hans Christian Dirscherl

As Kaufland reports here, Kaufland is “one of the first food retailers in the world to become part of the new automotive world”. That sounds spectacular and promising – but behind this new “automotive world” is simply the fact that in the future drivers will see advertising on the screen of their infotainment system/navigation device.

Cloud service as an interface

The company 4.screen provides the technical implementation. This connects the vehicles of the automobile manufacturers with the advertising offers of various providers via its cloud solution. This cloud solution is now being integrated into “selected German premium vehicles”. However, when asked by PC-WELT, BMW explained that it was not involved.

The drivers should thus receive “individual, mobility-related offers from Kaufland branches that are near them or along their route”. This includes information such as opening hours and local services as well as information about the Kaufland Card. In effect, this is advertising if you strip away the euphonious marketing language.

Of course, Kaufland sees this positively and speaks of “exclusive offers” with which the 4.screen platform would create “added value for drivers”. “The platform is a real innovation for the marketing world. It offers us the opportunity to further develop our broad marketing mix and to address our customers in an even more individual and targeted manner,” says Christoph Schneider, Managing Director Marketing Germany at Kaufland.

Audi is the first

Apparently, Audi is the first manufacturer to offer its customers the advertising displayed by 4.screen. Because the Ingolstadt-based company already announced in May 2022 that they were working with 4.screen to “improve the future in-car experience”. This cooperation should look like this: “On request, the drivers receive relevant, location-based and tailor-made offers from selected third-party providers via the Multi Media Interface (MMI). The display takes place in the usual Audi MMI logic and the information from the cloud supplements the existing infotainment -Contents”. Audi goes on to explain: “Via the MMI, Audi owners have the option of selecting a wide variety of locations, so-called points of interest (POI), via the touch display and navigating to them – be it a gas station, a supermarket or a restaurant. Through the partnership With 4.screen, Audi wants to significantly expand this offer. Audi customers receive exclusive information and tailor-made offers in real time in their vehicle, but not without their consent.” For example, if the Audi driver uses his MMI to search for an organic market nearby, he can also display additional content such as the additional services currently on offer or offers for the listed results. According to Audi, additional offers for e-car drivers are also conceivable: “For example, the shop operator can offer free coffee with every purchase in the attached bistro or free charging for electric vehicles. In order to redeem the offer, drivers have to enter a QR code that is displayed in the MMI will scan.”

Update September 22: Audi responded to our inquiry about the specific implementation as follows: “

It is currently planned that the function will start as announced in Q4/22 (November) in our models with MIB2+ and MIB3 infotainment system (from model year 2019). The offer will initially be available in the German market, with other European markets to follow by the end of the year.

Basically, it should be noted that the customer will never receive unsolicited advertising or information from third parties. This requires an active and “conscious” action on the part of the customer (e.g. searching for a nearby supermarket, selecting a specific store, clicking on additional information). In addition, the customer naturally has the option of deactivating this additional information via the privacy mode (in the vehicle/myAudi app) at any time”.

update end

Technical requirements are the infotainment systems MIB2+ and MIB3 (vehicles from model year 2019, to start in selected markets in Europe).

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