Audi has introduced its first dedicated mobile site in the United States as it looks to meet mobile users' research needs and direct them to local dealers.

Audi of America has been busy in the mobile space recently, having launched mobile sites at the dealer level as well as an iPad application to support the launch of the A6. The new mobile site complements these and addresses the growing mobile traffic to its desktop site.

?Audi recognized that a large and rapidly growing proportion of all traffic to AudiUSA.com came from mobile devices,? said Chris Guest, group account director at AKQA, San Francisco.

?We did not want to duplicate the content of the desktop Web site, so through trend analysis and consumer research we were able to identify several key functions that consumers want from a national mobile site,? he said.

?We then created and optimized these utilities specifically for mobile to offer a brand experience in consumers' hands anytime and anywhere.

AKQA was appointed Audi of America's digital agency of record earlier this year.

The easy route
The goal of the site is to fulfill customers' research needs and route them to a dealer.
 
The site works across all major smartphone devices, including iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.

The user experience includes several interactions that consumers may recognize from mobile apps, such as swipe, scroll and locate.

?The site is a great example of the most current principles for designing Web apps for smartphones,? Mr. Guest said.

?Although a Web app, the site leverages the native abilities of each device, such as location sensing, video and  playback,? he said.

The first thing users will see when landing on the site is an ad for the new A6.
 
?We know that people use their mobile devices while watching TV, so we want it front and center to quickly connect interested viewers to relevant content,? Mr. Guest said.
 
By using the navigation at the bottom of the screen, users can tap on ?Models,? to see a list of models and images.

The cars can be sorted by model or body type.

Users can click through to see details about each model

?We believe that consumers like to leverage the immediacy of mobile, for example checking details, so we don't fill the pages with lengthy marketing text, we get straight to the facts,? Mr. Guest said.
 
The Dealers section uses location awareness and Google maps to find the nearest dealer. From there, users can tap to call a dealer, request a test drive, or link directly to search inventory via the dealer mobile sites.
 
There are also links for roadside assistance, links to download apps and the ability to pay bills.

Additionally, there is information some of the technology available in Audi cars so users can learn more about a specific feature in their car.
 
Audi will promote the new site in mobile ads for the A6 that directs users straight to the A6 content within the mobile site. 

Over the next year, additional paid media will point to specific cars within the mobile site.

The Audi of America mobile site, Audi A6 Experience for iPad and the Audi Auto Show iPad application were designed and built by AKQA. The dealer mobile sites were developed by Dealer.com.

?This mobile site is intended to be cross platform, easily updatable and to provide immediacy of access to consumer,? Mr. Guest said. ?It is then complemented by native apps that offer a richer experience appropriate to the device.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York