Volkswagen might be one of the most recognised car marques in the UK, but with a changing automotive landscape and a plethora of new electric brands entering the market, it has been on a mission to strengthen its position and drive consideration.

Capitalising on the brand’s history and loyal fanbase in the UK, it launched ‘YourWagen’, a campaign made up of 13 individual short stories detailing customers’ personal experiences. It celebrates the breadth of the VW userbase, from those who have been loyal to the brand for decades to those who have bought their first Volkswagen as an EV.

The brand was keen to use its “rich advertising heritage” in a more “evolved” way, according to head of marketing in the UK, Sarah Cox-Thornley, by highlighting the meaning of the word Volkswagen, which translates from German to ‘people’s car’, and how that relates to VW brand overall.

The campaign seems to be hitting the mark, with Volkswagen achieving its highest scores in brand consideration for the past six years, as well as driving an uplift in Google search volumes.

As a result the TV ad has been named the most creative effective campaign of the year within the automotive sector, and third overall, based on data from Kantar’s ad testing platform alongside a qualitative review by its team. Overall, the YourWagen campaign was found to be in the top 1% of advertisements tested by Kantar.

The emotional core of each story allows the brand to connect both with long-standing loyalists and audiences with no prior connection to Volkswagen, says Cox-Thornley.

“If you do not have any history with the brand, it still connects with you because it taps into a core human emotion,” she argues. “It is about seeing yourself in the advert. Recognising a story or a person that reflects the society you belong to.”

Cox-Thornley highlights the story of Luke as an example, who is an owner of an original Herbie Beetle. He describes meeting his wife through the car, raising their children around shared adventures, and continuing to look after the vehicle after her death.

“It was so emotional the way he told it,” she says. “It is actually humbling to be involved and for people to share something so personal.”

Authenticity is key

To ensure stories resonated, the brand worked through enthusiast forums and fan clubs to identify contributors and filmed them in their own environments.

“Everything is real. Nothing is from actors,” says Cox-Thornley. “We do not ask them to wear certain clothes. It is unpolished. It is their own words.”

Having spent most of her career within Volkswagen Group, Cox-Thornley is acutely aware of both the brand’s heritage advantage and the commercial scrutiny that comes with operating in today’s automotive market.

“There is a big trust in terms of the heritage of the advertising we have,” she says. “My brand director did my job 15 years ago, so he has it in his roots.”

We always try to evolve it and make it fresh.

Sarah Cox-Thornley, Volkswagen UK

That heritage also creates a competitive edge as new EV entrants and Chinese brands attempt to establish themselves, she says.

“They just do not have that storytelling capability,” Cox-Thornley asserts. “There is no depth or history to them yet.” Volkswagen, by contrast, has had the time in the UK to build a broad fanbase, she says. “We would say we have fans, not customers. That opened this rich territory.”

Yet she rejects any suggestion that YourWagen relies on nostalgia for its own sake. “It is not just about showing old cars,” she states. “It is the relationship between the car and the person.”

Change in approach

While storytelling has always been a focus for Volkswagen, the way the stories are told has evolved.

Earlier activity prioritised craft-focused storytelling with two- to three-minute films. More recent work has shifted to shorter, social-native formats on TikTok and Meta, along with creative focused on functional product benefits for specific audiences. Editing techniques and framing adapt across platforms to ensure effectiveness rather than mere consistency.

“Rather than have one film that we then just created into different lengths, we have done different formats,” she says. “We always try to evolve it and make it fresh.”

Volkswagen was convinced of the campaign’s success early through testing with Kantar, which demonstrated not only strong brand results but a tangible effect on sales intent, Cox-Thornley says. The results were sufficiently compelling that the approved edit ran without tweaks.

She says the campaign achieved the highest score on VW’s own internal measures too.

“We wanted to make sure the campaign did a job for us in terms of short-term sales impact as well as long-term brand equity,” she explains. “When we tested the ad and could see what a high impact it had on both measures, we were very excited about what we had developed.”

Volkswagen’s global brand health metrics have reflected that performance. “We saw the highest scores in brand consideration in the last six years,” she notes.

Google search volumes, website traffic and social engagement lifted and have sustained at a higher level since launch too, she says. Plus System1 rated the creative the second most effective automotive advert ever aired in the UK.

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Platform, not campaign

Cox-Thornley describes YourWagen as a “cultural infrastructure” rather than simply a campaign. “We are using it culturally as well as as the advertising mechanic.”

It also enables the business to continue building on it and iterating, using the platform and customers’ stories as the starting point.

Last year’s 50th anniversary for Golf and this year’s equivalent moment for Polo have been treated through customer story lenses too, for example. “We wanted something we could keep coming back to, but that we could also layer underneath with a more model-specific campaign,” Cox-Thornley explains.

The platform is also not confined to marketing communications. Retailers and partners are encouraged to embody the same brand promise in customer experience. Staff induction now includes the origins and intent of YourWagen, and exceptional stories from franchise technicians and showroom advisers are shared internally in the same manner as customer films.

Even with strong results, Cox-Thornley remains pragmatic about the challenge of sustaining growth. Leaning into heritage offers both advantage and potential constraint. Loyalty can become a comfort zone if new audiences are not consistently reached.

“It could be a double-edged sword,” she concedes. “It is not only about keeping your loyal audience, but also bringing in more audience.”

Balancing the immediate with the enduring remains central to her philosophy. Short-term promotional work continues to run beneath the brand effort, with the funnel structure monitored closely for efficiency.

“We have a responsibility to our boards financially,” she states. “It is about getting the balance.”

Her overall philosophy for effective advertising is this: “You have to use the science as much as the creativity. We are really pleased that we have taken that opportunity and why we will continue to invest in the Your Volkswagen platform.”