Wieden scoops £15m Audi AL2

Audi, the German car-manufacturer, has awarded Wieden & Kennedy the &£15m pan-European advertising account for its new AL2 aluminium car.

It is the first work the agency has carried out for the Munich-based company. It does not affect Bartle Bogle Hegarty’s creative work on the Audi range in the UK.

The Audi advertising network invited three pitches in all. The other contenders were Saatchi & Saatchi Frankfurt and Louis Phillipe, Paris.

John Russell, managing director for Wieden & Kennedy in Amsterdam, says: “We have smart people here who know how to build brands and they stood us in good stead to win the work.”

The AL2 was unveiled at the Frankfurt motor show in 1997, and will be rolled out in April next year. Priced from &£10,000, it is a five-door hatchback in the “supermini” class, the smallest car Audi has ever produced. It features an aluminium frame, with cast aluminium joints and stress-bearing aluminium panels. The aim is to make the car extremely economical to run, at up to 79.5 miles per gallon.

Audi intends to assemble the AL2 in Neckarsulm, Germany, where it builds its A8 aluminium luxury car, which was introduced in the mid-Nineties.

Although Audi is reluctant to reveal details of its AL2 plan, it is believed to be planning 50,000 units annually.