Germany 2 | SunMatrix Ramble

Audi TT: Brochure Hack

When print becomes interface, not paper

The best product storytelling often happens before the test drive, when you can turn curiosity into comprehension with a tangible experience.

Transforming classic print surfaces into smart touch based surfaces through special conductive ink and sensors has been around for a while now. But I still thought the below execution from Audi was worth a mention, as it was a step forward for the technology since it surfaced in 2014.

The Audi TT was the first Audi model to feature a revolutionary Virtual Cockpit. So to inspire customers, Razorfish Germany used conductive ink, haptic feedback, Bluetooth and a custom smartphone app to transform the car’s conventional sales brochure into a smart surface which gave viewers an augmented touch based journey through the car’s Virtual Cockpit. Here, a “smart surface” means a printed object that detects touch and triggers connected digital content.

How the brochure hack worked as a connected demo

The mechanism was a touch-sensitive brochure plus a companion device.

Conductive ink turned parts of the brochure into touch-sensitive zones. The smartphone app acted as the compute layer and controller, meaning it handled the logic and displayed the content. Bluetooth linked the physical brochure to digital content, while haptic feedback reinforced the feeling that the brochure itself had become an interface.

Instead of reading about Virtual Cockpit, viewers navigated it through touch, guided by the brochure’s layout.

In European automotive showrooms and launch events, touch-sensitive print works best when it helps prospects understand a digital feature before they ever sit in the car.

Why touch and haptics made the feature feel real

Virtual Cockpit is a feature that can sound abstract on a spec sheet. Because viewers could explore it through touch and get immediate confirmation via haptics, the interaction reduced cognitive load and made the capability feel tangible. The real question is whether your pre-drive touchpoint helps people experience the feature, not just read about it.

Extractable takeaway: When a feature is hard to picture, pair a simple physical interaction with immediate feedback so people learn by doing instead of decoding specs.

The business intent behind turning a brochure into product experience

The intent was to make a new interface feature memorable and easy to understand before a customer ever sat in the car.

This is a strong pattern when the feature is hard to visualize and the physical object can reliably deliver the same guided interaction every time. It also reframed the brochure from disposable collateral into a premium object that people were more likely to keep, show, and talk about, extending attention time well beyond the first touchpoint.

Steal this for your next touch-enabled brochure demo

Use print to trigger behavior, not just convey information. If the product story is interactive, the media should be too.
Make the first interaction obvious. Touch zones should feel discoverable without instructions.
Pair physical feedback with digital content. Haptics and responsiveness make the experience feel credible.
Choose touch-enabled print when it explains something complex. The tech earns its cost when it makes a hard-to-grasp feature instantly understandable.

A few fast answers before you act

What was the Audi TT “Brochure Hack”?

It was a printed sales brochure turned into a touch-sensitive interface, designed to help people explore the Audi TT’s Virtual Cockpit concept through guided interaction.

How did the brochure become interactive?

Conductive ink and sensors created touch zones in the brochure. A custom smartphone app provided the compute layer and content. Bluetooth connected brochure and phone, and haptic feedback helped the interaction feel physical and “real”.

Why is “smart print” useful for explaining a feature like Virtual Cockpit?

Because the feature can feel abstract on a spec sheet. Touch interaction reduces cognitive load and makes the experience feel like discovery instead of marketing.

What is the key mechanism in one line?

Physical touch triggers digital explanation. The brochure guides the hand, the phone delivers the content, and feedback confirms the interaction.

What did this change versus a normal brochure or video?

It increased time spent and comprehension by turning passive reading into guided exploration, which is especially valuable in high-consideration categories like automotive.

When does this pattern make business sense?

It makes sense when you need to simplify a complex product story early in the funnel, and when the physical object is meant to be kept, shown, and revisited rather than discarded.

The Disappearing Billboard

A glowing Audi A7 appears in mid-air on a city street at night. Then it fades. The “billboard” leaves nothing behind but steam.

The product truth. Zero emission, water vapour only

The Audi A7 Sportback h-tron is built using zero emission fuel cell technology coupled with a hybrid battery and an electric motor in the rear. Due to this, the car gives out nothing but water vapour from its exhaust.

The idea. Advertising that leaves nothing behind

With such an innovative product, Audi teams up with German agency thjnk to create advertising that mirrors the product promise. A billboard that also leaves nothing behind.

If the claim is “leaves nothing behind,” the medium should leave nothing behind too. The real question is whether the medium can behave like the promise, so the claim becomes self-evident.

Here, “disappearing billboard” means a timed projection onto water vapour, not a physical poster.

How it works. Projection onto water vapour

Water vapour is used as the surface.
The car and message are projected onto the vapour cloud.
The installation appears in busy city areas after dark, then disappears.

In European city streets, the hardest part of outdoor work is creating a memorable moment without leaving permanent media behind.

Why it works. The medium is the message

Instead of explaining “nothing but water vapour,” the execution behaves like it. It turns a technical claim into a visible moment people can experience, photograph, and talk about.

Extractable takeaway: When a product truth is hard to feel, design an execution that behaves like the claim. Let the medium do the proving.

Borrow the disappearing-surface play

Mirror the claim. Choose a medium that behaves like the product truth, so the message is the proof.
Make it legible fast. One glance should explain what is happening and why it matters.
Design for capture. Build the moment so people want to photograph it and share it.
Time-box the surprise. Appear briefly, then disappear, so the absence becomes part of the story.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Disappearing Billboard?

An outdoor activation where Audi projects the A7 Sportback h-tron and message onto clouds of water vapour, creating a billboard that vanishes.

What is the connection to the car?

The A7 Sportback h-tron emits nothing but water vapour, so the advertising surface is also water vapour.

Where does it run best?

In busy city areas after dark, where the projected vapour image reads clearly and feels unexpected.

What is the core mechanism?

A timed projection onto water vapour that appears briefly and leaves nothing behind.

Who creates the work?

Audi with German agency thjnk.

St. Pauli: Pinkelt Zurück

St. Pauli is one of Hamburg’s top entertainment destinations, reported as attracting up to 20 million visitors a year with its nightclubs and legal prostitution. But the steady stream of visitors has many residents and merchants angry, as some visitors relieve themselves against walls, leaving parts of the area smelling like a latrine.

So to combat this, St. Pauli’s merchants fight back by coating the most frequented walls with Ultra-Ever Dry, a superhydrophobic coating that repels liquids (the same type of coating Nissan publicly demonstrated on a “self-cleaning” car prototype). Now when liquid hits the treated surface, it can splash back, soaking the offender’s pants and shoes.

A deterrent that makes the consequence immediate

The mechanism is direct. Identify the walls that get hit most often. Apply a coating that strongly repels liquids. Let physics deliver instant feedback to the person causing the problem. It is not subtle, and that is the point. The “punishment” is immediate embarrassment and discomfort. The real question is how to stop a repeat nuisance behavior when constant policing is unrealistic. The stronger move is to redesign the environment so the consequence happens in the moment.

Why it lands

In European nightlife districts where resident quality-of-life clashes with party tourism, deterrence tends to work best when it changes behavior in the moment, not when it relies on rules people ignore after midnight. This works because it does not require enforcement at scale. There is no need to catch someone, argue, or issue a fine. The wall becomes the deterrent, and the story becomes self-spreading because the consequence is memorable and easy to retell.

Extractable takeaway: If a behavior persists because policing is impractical, shift the intervention from enforcement to environment. Make the unwanted action inconvenient or self-correcting, and the system scales without extra staff.

A broader pattern beyond Hamburg

Similar anti-urination paint trials were also reported in San Francisco, where public works tested superhydrophobic coatings on selected walls as a deterrent. The through-line is the same. When a city cannot police every corner, it experiments with “designing the street” to reduce repeat nuisance behaviors.

What civic teams can borrow

Target the hotspots. Interventions work best when they focus on the highest-frequency locations, not the whole city.
Make the rule physical. If the environment enforces the norm, compliance increases without lectures.
Keep the message legible. People should understand the consequence immediately, even when they are distracted.
Plan for side effects. Think through splash zones, signage, and whether the deterrent creates any new cleaning burden.

A few fast answers before you act

What does “Pinkelt Zurück” mean?

It means “pees back”. It is a blunt way to describe a wall treatment designed to repel liquid back toward the source.

What coating is used in this idea?

The case describes the use of Ultra-Ever Dry, a superhydrophobic coating designed to repel most liquids.

Why is this more effective than fines?

Because enforcement is hard in crowded nightlife areas. The deterrent works at the moment of behavior, without needing police presence.

Was something similar tried outside Germany?

Yes. Reporting describes trials of similar superhydrophobic coatings on walls in San Francisco as a public urination deterrent.

What is the main lesson for civic or place marketing?

When behavior change is the goal, redesign the environment so the better behavior becomes the easier behavior.