While Audi might be associated with Germany, the automotive company recently took home some awards in the United States. The International Design Excellence (IDEA) Award 2012 title was given to the new Audi A6. Contest judges commented on the innovative design. This might come as a shock to some pundits, but the Audi A6 range actually won another major US industrial design trophy.

With both the IDEA and red dot design award titles under their belt, it looked like Audi was already dominating the awards scene. However, they won a few titles in their home country as well. Germans ranked Audi the second most popular brand in the entire country. It was the top-performing car brand in the Brandmeyer brand consultancy survey. Forsa, a major market research institute, asked 3,000 individuals to name their favorite brand. The answer was completely freeform.

Audi came in second only to Adidas in Germany. Each of the respondents was over the age of 14, so there was a large range of demographics being covered. This also helped to cut down on the possibility of major children’s brands ending up with high rankings. However, one might argue that Audi would still perform well even if they had asked children. The car company is well known in continental Europe.

Australians also seem to have a certain affinity for the German automaker. Australian Automotive Brand Contest judges have named the A3 compact the “Best of the Best.” The A3 also received some awards for its exterior design and the connection options. Interestingly, that contest actually has a Connectivity category. While that might seem postmodern, more motor vehicles today are shipping with some sort of accessible computer system.

Audi’s future looks relatively strong with all of these awards. Decorations don’t necessarily drive sales. Critics are very different from the average consumer, and they look for different things when they’re judging motor vehicles. However, that doesn’t mean that Audi can’t use this buzz to create plenty of attention. They’ll probably also mention these various awards in their advertising campaigns. No car commercial is ever complete without mentioning a couple of honors.