2019 Audi A8 Magazine Insert with LEDs

How do you showcase a symphony of lights from a beloved brand using paper?

That was the riddle presented to Structural Graphics earlier this year when Audi of America’s agency of record, PHD Media, tapped Meredith Corporation to create a truly unique magazine insert in Departures® Magazine. According to Don Stone, Meredith Corporations’ Senior Operations Manager and lead for this project, the Structural Graphics team “immediately came to mind.”

Not only did the insert need to excite and grab the attention of Audi’s target consumers; it also needed to highlight the “innovative and elegant” lighting experience of the new Audi A8.

“We designed the lighting package around the photography from Venables Bell & Partners, the creative agency for Audi,” said Ethan Goller, President of Structural Graphics. “We used 49 LEDs firing in exactly the same sequence as the A8.”

Readers of the magazine also receive a faux key fob, which has functioning lock and unlock buttons.

“By clicking the key fob lock or unlock button, you could experience the incredible A8 lighting sequence greeting you as you approach the car,” Goller said. “Great photography, combined with an elegant print treatment, high-end paper stocks and the lighting package we created, Departures® Magazine gave the luxury and premium feel the Audi A8 demands.”

The record-breaking number of LED’s Structural Graphics developed to mimic the Audi A8’s unique lighting design animation, along with producing the remote control faux key fob used to trigger the display lights, is a one-of-a-kind experience that has never been done before.

Structural Graphics, which has been in the business for more than 42 years, is no stranger to using cutting-edge technology in its clients’ interactive print designs. In fact, this past summer, an ad in Instyle Magazine for Toyota created by Saatchi & Saatchi in partnership with Structural Graphics featured a heart rate monitor, sound module and pulsing lights. Another ground-breaking, never been done before technology.