Vorsprung durch Technik

In the early 1980s, Audi was widely seen as a posh Volkswagen rather than a rival to BMW and Mercedesbenz. Exciting new cars like the Quattro started to change that, but its marketing needed a push; and it was new British ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty tasked with changing its image.

In 1982, BBH creative boss John Hegarty toured Audi’s Ingolstadt factory to seek inspiration. He spotted the statement ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ on a fading poster on the factory wall – a German marketing slogan first used to promote cars like the Ro80 from Audi’s sister firm NSU. It translated from German as ‘advancement through technology’ and conveyed in literal terms the qualities that British consumers had come to admire in German cars when British cars were infamously poor.

Hegarty later recalled: “I had no idea that it would become that popular. It says everything and says nothing. It just captured people’s imagination. Everyone looked at me as though I was mad.”

Despite breaking the cardinal rule of good communication (make the message literally understandable), it triumphed. Having it paradoxically voiced in TV commercials by retiredbritish-colonel-sounding Geoffrey Palmer was another winning move.

Mad or not, the phrase entered the language and the tagline ended up being used in many non-germanspeaking countries, including Britain, many in Europe and Canada.

It was later used in the US, where it has often coexisted with its English equivalent: ‘Innovation through technology’.

Vorsprung is also now the top, fully loaded trim level on many Audi cars.