ooooIYKYK, ISSUE #oo38
Facebook reminded me today that it’s been exactly one year since I launched this ooooIYKYK Audi-focused newsletter, website and podcast for brand insiders. I’d been covering the Audi brand for years with VWvortex.com, then Fourtitude.com, then Audi Club North America and quattro Magazine. The reason I’d moved on from each was in part because of Audi’s changing direction over the last decade.
At one time, Audi was deliberate about not simply chasing authenticity as an upstart performance luxury brand over the chase for volume. Former Audi of America CEO Johan de Nysschen used to tell me, “I don’t want an Audi in every driveway. I want an Audi in the right driveways.” He was intentional with his actions — adding niche models like the RS 6, RS 4, R8 and TDI to Audi’s North American lineup when they’d never been offered before. He opened Audi Forum New York City as a no-sales cultural space and greenlit the Truth in 24 documentaries, an initiative by CMO Scott Keogh that helped bring appreciation for Le Mans to America.
That philosophy extended to media. While Audi included the usual general outlets, it also intentionally supported those specializing in the brand it was building. As publisher of Fourtitude I found myself included in core brand events — product launches, auto shows, motorsport activities and Audi’s TechDay series. I wasn’t alone. Audiworld, quattroWorld, Audizine and Audi Club North America were there too. We competed fiercely, but the strategy worked. The enthusiast ecosystem flourished. Audi-focused media and organizations rose to levels they’d never been before and haven’t really seen since.
In the years since de Nysschen’s departure, Audi continued to shift more deliberately toward scale. Volume became the simplest metric. If the numbers weren’t there, support often wasn’t either. As editor of Fourtitude that was frustrating. As Executive Director of Audi Club and Editor-in-Chief of quattro Magazine, the frustration continued.
Instead of people or media, consider it from a product perspective. An R8 isn’t a Q5 — their best seller in the booming midsize crossover space. The two do very different things for the brand. If Audi sold only Q5s, fewer people would care about Audi. The same could even be said of the Porsche with their best-selling Cayenne or Macan were the grand sum of the vaunted Porsche brand not to include 911 and GT cars alongside.
Chasing the largest possible audience isn’t inherently wrong. Dropping sports car racing for F1 keeps Audi in motorsport but moves it to the series with the biggest global reach. Soccer sponsorships tap into the world’s largest sport. Placement at The Quail or super luxury hotels shoots for a different scale, i.e. net worth of the highest-income buyers. Casting a wide net is smart business.
The risk comes when scale becomes the only lens. A lineup of A-to-B crossover appliances may drive throughput, but it doesn’t make a brand aspirational. Audi isn’t a commodity brand, yet its portfolio increasingly reads like one. The R8 is gone. The TT is gone. The A5, S5 and RS 5 are gone. The Cabriolets are gone. Meanwhile the crossover roster stretches from Q3 to Q4 to Q5 to Q6 to Q7 to Q8 and soon Q9 — a ladder of incremental utility where differentiation becomes measured in inches and configuration elements rather than character.
Looking at the past week, it feels like Audi may be recalibrating.
The RS 5 returned.
The R26 ran in Bahrain.
The Audi Revolut F1 Team x adidas collection launched.
Rouven Mohr returned to take the helm of Technical Development.
Not in the same place. Not on the same stage.
Ingolstadt. Bahrain. Online. Canada.
On the surface, it appears uncoordinated.
But step back and a pattern emerges.
An RS 5 is not a volume play. Six days of F1 testing over two weeks are about engineering credibility and long-term halo effect. An adidas F1 capsule collection brings engagement to your person so that you literally wear it on your sleeve. The R26’s North American presence seeds motorsport and brand enthusiasm beyond Europe. And Rouven Mohr’s arrival signals something arguably more important: technical leadership with authentic dynamic product at a time when Audi’s product roadmap will define its next decade.
These are identity moves.
Could they be connected more visibly? Absolutely. Product, motorsport, apparel and leadership reinforcing one another in real time would have amplified the impact. The pieces are there. The connective tissue still needs refinement.
But for the first time in a while, Audi’s activity feels less like forced efforts to tie reach to half-hearted efforts and more like early signs of rediscovered brand coherence. More enthusiast-facing. More tactile. Less simply optimized for volume or metrics.
That distinction matters. Premium brands don’t lose relevance all at once — they diffuse gradually when scale replaces identity. Relevance returns the same way, through cumulative signals that engineering, culture and product once again point in the same direction.
One year into this project, that’s the most meaningful takeaway. Not that Audi had a busy week, but that the nature of the activity reflects intent. The ingredients that once defined Audi’s rise — halo product, motorsport credibility, cultural reach and engineering conviction — are visible again.
When those ingredients move in concert, coherence becomes visible. And once coherence is visible, momentum follows.
That is beginning to take shape.
NEXT UP THIS WEEK’S NEWS & FEATURES
CURATED PODCASTS & VIDEO CONTENT
Audi’s New RS 5 Avant & Sedan! Loud V6 Hybrid Beasts! | Remove Before Race
Audi RS 5 REVEAL – a proper Audi RS? | Autogefühl
Hope or Heartbreak? 2026 Audi RS 5 Sedan & Avant
Design Analysis: New 2027 Audi RS 5 | Bembli
Testing the Audi RS 3 on Challenging Snow Covered Rally Course | Team O’Neil
AUDI RS4 B7 – A Tribute Film To An Icon – Untouchable! | Auditography
LEGO Speed Champions 77259 Audi Revolut F1 Team R26 – Too Early for 2026?
Tuned Hot Hatchbacks 1/4 Mile Race | carwow
Is F1 going into CRISIS? We need to talk… | B Sport
ooooIYKYK AUDI ARCHIVE UPDATES
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