Volkswagen Hat-Trick at Auto Express Awards

The motoring title’s Compact Car of the Year is the current iteration of the perennially popular Volkswagen Golf, while the keenly contested Auto Express City Car of the Year class is once again topped by the Volkswagen up!

• Completing the brand’s hat-trick of victories, the Volkswagen UK Marketing team’s innovative and memorable ‘Bam the ram’ activity – created to mark the launch of the new T-Roc SUV at the beginning of the year – claims the respected weekly motoring title’s trophy for Integrated Advertising Campaign of the Year.

  The current generation of Golf, Volkswagen’s biggest selling model to date, features some of the brand’s latest engineering, technology and connectivity, all wrapped in an eye-catching and efficient hatchback or estate body style.

  Commenting on the Golf’s victory, Auto Express Editor-in-chief Steve Fowler said: “After more than 40 years and seven generations, the Volkswagen Golf has been honed and evolved to the point where it’s still the undisputed king of the class.

  “That’s for a multitude of reasons following its successful facelift last year that subtly revitalised the formula, tweaking the styling, adding new engines and extra safety tech to the line-up and improving the infotainment on offer in this Mk 7.5 model.”

  Emerging from Volkswagen factories around the globe at an average pace of one every 40 seconds for the last 44 years, the brand’s updated family favourite continues to feature high in the UK best-sellers list as buyers opt for its uniquely appealing mix of reliability, safety and driving pleasure.

  Meanwhile the latest Volkswagen up! city car is also a repeat winner with Auto Express.

  Claiming the Auto Express 2018 City Car of the Year award, the up! is praised for its quality, refinement, generous interior space and high-end equipment options.

  Steve Fowler said: “New city cars have arrived on the market over the last 12 months, but none has managed to knock the Volkswagen up! off its perch.

  “It remains a strikingly grown-up little car that’s affordable to buy and run, great fun to drive and offers a clever approach to in-car connectivity. And despite its compact dimensions, there’s still space for four.”

  Today’s up! range also demonstrates the breadth of Volkswagen’s engineering and dynamic abilities. It stretches from the stirring and multi-award winning up! GTI to the all-electric e-up!, which adds the option of zero-emission driving to the car’s compelling mix of attributes.

  Volkswagen’s confident and stylish new compact SUV, the T-Roc, almost met its match at the start of the year in the cute shape of Bam, the baby ram – star of the brand’s innovative marketing activity.

  Volkswagen’s ‘Born Confident’ campaign entered new territory at the turn of the year with a first-of-its-kind media activity which saw Bam, the self-confident ram featured in agency adam&eveDDB’s ads, leap into commercials from other advertisers.

  The cross-media activity saw Bam interrupt ads in national press, Out-of-Home, and even in a series of specially created TV ad breaks across Sky’s channels.

  Steve said of the T-Roc campaign: “Our judges felt the Volkswagen T-Roc’s ‘Born Confident’ campaign resonated with the audience, and was very well executed.

  “The creative really stood out against other campaigns running in the same period, and this will surely be among the most memorable campaigns of the past 12 months – as well as the best executed in whichever media it appeared.”

  Receiving the awards on behalf of Volkswagen at the Auto Express Awards tonight (Tuesday) were Director of Volkswagen UK, Alison Jones, and Head of Marketing, Geraldine Ingham.

  Geraldine said: “To hear the UK’s biggest-selling automotive magazine speak so warmly about two of the most popular models in the extensive Volkswagen line-up is very gratifying.

  “I’m also thrilled by my team’s success in the Integrated Marketing category, of course. Along with our agency, we put a lot of effort into creating something genuinely different and it’s great to see that hard work recognised in this way.”