Autostadt

Why it works

Volkswagen opened Autostadt beside its Wolfsburg plant on 1 June 2000, timed to Expo 2000 in nearby Hanover. Designed by the architects HENN, it combines a customer centre where buyers collect their new cars, a museum and a pavilion for each group brand, from Skoda to Bentley and Lamborghini. Its emblem is a pair of 48-metre glass towers that hold finished cars and lift them down to their owners, so the logistics of delivery become the show. Marketing Week said at launch that it took brand experience to a new level, quoting VW's brand-management director that the aim was not to sell cars to visitors but to build appreciation of the brands; the Associated Press called it a cross between Disney World and the Smithsonian. It is studied as an early, large-scale case of a carmaker turning its factory gate into a destination. By Autostadt's own count at its 25th anniversary, it has drawn more than 48 million guests and handed over almost 3.5 million new vehicles.