B2B & Industry

1,834 CRM Leads from 12 Months of Continuous Operation for Audi

Audi installed a permanent AI photo station in the Audi Forum Neckarsulm brand-experience centre. Across 12 months of continuous operation, the setup generated 5,817 sessions and 1,834 GDPR-compliant CRM leads — a lead rate of around 31.5 percent with no staff at the touchpoint. The lever was the combination of a brand-aligned software UI, AI background removal and a permanently available data gate that turned showroom visitors into qualified records for the Audi CRM.

More than 200 B2B brands from across Europe trust UpReach — from agencies to enterprise corporations.

The initial situation

The Audi Forum Neckarsulm is brand world, showroom and factory-tour hub in one. Fans, prospective buyers, factory visitors and employees pass through the centre every day — a highly relevant audience that standard showroom setups barely capture systematically.

The central problem was the always-on requirement: unlike a trade fair or a launch, the system had to run continuously with no staff, no on-site support and no supervision — over 12 months, across varying footfall levels, with different visitor profiles.

The technical hurdles followed from that: the hardware had to withstand continuous showroom operation with no drop in performance. The software UI had to be integrated exactly into the corporate design of the Audi Forum — not a generic photo-booth interface. The data pipeline had to capture GDPR-compliant opt-ins and hand them to the Audi CRM in real time, so that marketing and sales could take over leads with no manual reworking. Photo processing had to run continuously and GDPR-compliant — with consent at the terminal before every capture and a DPA agreed with the data protection officer.

The UpReach solution

UpReach deployed an UpReach Pro V1 station as a permanent installation in the Audi Forum. The housing was wrapped in the brand's corporate design and architecturally integrated into the showroom — no UpReach branding in the visitor's line of sight.

The software interface ran fully in the Audi corporate identity: branded screens, Audi typography, exclusively curated brand backgrounds. The AI engine offered three output formats: high-resolution single photos, GIFs and boomerangs — each cut out in front of Audi brand worlds. The AI background removal was integrated into our own photo-booth software; every capture only happened after consent at the terminal, and processing was GDPR-compliant and backed by a DPA.

The conversion lever was the data gate. Before visitors received their content by QR code or email, they went through a GDPR-compliant opt-in screen: email, newsletter consent, optional further marketing fields. Consent was captured with a timestamp and transferred to the Audi CRM in real time via REST API. Marketing automation and sales follow-up started with no manual intermediate step.

The terminal ran in kiosk mode — no operating surface for visitors, no maintenance by Forum staff. Software updates and AI model updates were pushed over the air from the cloud CMS. More on the hardware: /produkte/pro-v1.

Setup & Logistics

Six weeks' lead time: 3 weeks for software configuration (UI in the Audi corporate identity, AI background curation, CRM REST API mapping, end-to-end testing of the data pipeline), 2 weeks for physical preparation (housing wrap in the Audi design, architectural integration into the showroom area), 1 week for GDPR sign-off by the data protection officer and a final compliance review.

Set-up by an UpReach technician directly in the Audi Forum, including camera calibration to the showroom's lighting conditions. The cloud CMS was handed to the Forum's marketing team — sessions, conversion rate, CRM lead volume and output-format distribution were visible in real time across the full 12-month period.

Data pipeline in continuous operation: every confirmed consent was handed to the Audi CRM via REST API within seconds — including the opt-in timestamp, the chosen content format and newsletter status. Remote monitoring by UpReach: performance metrics and system health were monitored centrally, without Forum staff having to intervene in operations. OTA updates for software and AI models were carried out outside opening hours with no downtime during the day.

Results by the numbers

5.817

sessions

1.834

qualified CRM leads

months of always-on operation

The 31.5 percent conversion rate with no staff operation sits well above typical showroom lead rates, where questionnaires or contact forms without an incentive rarely convert into double figures. The mechanism: the personalised AI content itself was the incentive — no prize draw, no discount promise needed.

All 1,834 leads were captured via the GDPR-compliant opt-in at the terminal — with a timestamp, the chosen content format and newsletter status as metadata per record. The REST API handed every lead to the Audi CRM within seconds. Marketing automation could start with no CSV export or manual reworking.

The distribution of output formats (single photos, GIFs, boomerangs) additionally delivered insight into the behaviour of Forum visitors — a data layer that classic showroom analytics could not access.

Key takeaways from this setup

A permanent installation is a different discipline from an event setup: for a 48-hour activation, you optimise for peak performance under staff supervision. For 12 months of continuous operation with no operating staff, stability, remote monitoring and OTA update capability matter more than raw peak performance. Industrial hardware is not a recommendation here but a precondition.

The content itself is the incentive: in permanent installations, classic prize-draw mechanisms work less well — visitors come to the Forum voluntarily and with brand affinity. High-quality, brand-aligned AI content is enough value in return for the GDPR consent. That simplifies compliance and reduces legal complexity during a running activity.

Always-on beats a point-in-time activity for CRM growth: 1,834 leads in 12 months equal a steady flow of around 150 qualified leads per month into the Audi CRM funnel — a plannable pipeline building block with no recurring event-cost block. For brands with their own brand-experience centre, the permanent installation is the more efficient investment logic compared with repeated trade-fair activations.