The Volkswagen Passat ‘Pleasure before business’ campaign is an example of decision-making bravery based upon an incisive, motivating consumer insight that tapped into an unidentified cultural phenomenon – that Australians want to have their lifestyle and eat it too.The combined client-agency team leveraged the insight to challenge established medium car segment codes and in so doing, grew Volkswagen Passat orders by 630%.The campaign re-discovered the power of good brand positioning executed beautifully in true equity-building communications. The category-disruptive advertising reversed Volkswagen Passat’s decline and changed, hopefully for a very long time, its need for overly rationalised, ‘features fight’ communications that were strangling medium cars into significant decline. Indeed Volkswagen Passat’s medium car competitors are still in decline while the Passat is still in significant growth, 8 months after the last burst.The results of the campaign, which post-analysis confirmed communicated directly to known purchase drivers, was a sharp increase in the number of orders of Volkswagen Passats from dealers, volume share growth, significant brand perception shifts upwards, 80% engagement with the advertising and a half-year ROMI of 5.5.Unlike virtually all automotive advertising in Australia, this campaign created a compelling positioning for the Volkswagen Passat and in so doing, actually gave it brand equity. This equity has driven immediate orders from dealers (the campaign has only been in market for just over 9 months) and very likely it will continue to drive orders in years to come.

The learning from this campaign is therefore clear. It’s also one that every marketer in the world knows very well yet equally often forgets. Invest in building brand equity because it converts to sales – now and in the future.