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GTI ad campaign drawing lots of attention

JJ-R32

Administrator
Staff member
Business Week Magazine Reports:

Sales-Drivers Wanted at VW

A
lively and witty ad campaign could get the auto maker's stale relationship with enthusiasts out of the slow lane...and sell some cars, too




Volkswagen has been looking for a new bolt of energy for its faltering brand, and it may finally be on to something with its first marketing campaign from its new ad agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Four new TV ads for its just-released GTI performance car that broke this week during the Winter Olympics are the most energized and brand-correct ads to come from VW in five years -- back when the German auto maker was setting an ad standard for companies in and out of the automotive category. The ads' theme is "Make Friends With Your Fast," a reference to the "thing" inside drivers that makes them like to go fast and drive high-performance cars. In the ads, as well as the broader marketing campaign, the "fast" is embodied in a strange little character that looks like a cross between Darth Vader and the Tasmanian Devil. It rides with the drivers of the car, and is heard speaking as if it's the driver's conscience.


FAST COMPANY. It's not as tortured a creative vehicle as it sounds. Though Volkswagen's decade-old "Drivers Wanted" theme doesn't appear, VW and the ad agency say not to assume that the slogan is going to be replaced. The "Make Friends..." line is unique to the GTI launch.

In one ad, a guy in his early 20s is seen clearly enjoying his drive. The windows are down, the engine is roaring and his girlfriend's hair is blowing all over. She asks if he can put the windows up. The "Fast" is heard to say, "My Fast likes to drive with the windows down." The wind-blown girl is asking why they always have to ride with the windows down. "The 'Fast' implores, "Don't. Don't." The driver, cast well as a slightly pimply geek, probably into Asian indie music, cuts her off: "Sweetie, it's really hard to enjoy the sound of the engine with all that yackin'."

DRIVING URGE. These ads remind me a little of beer commercials. You know, like Budweiser or Bud Lite ads in which the young guy or guys are humorously depicted as being way more into their beer than their wives or girlfriends. There is another GTI spot in which a guy goes off on an errand, leaving his girlfriend behind a locked passenger door because he doesn't want her extra weight (she's not overweight) dragging down his driving experience.

Perhaps its no coincidence that just as this ad agency was gearing up for VW, it was tapped by Miller Brewing to be the new agency on its Lite brand. But the ads are funny, and they work for the brand. Owning a VW is about liking to drive. "On the road of life, there are passengers and drivers," goes the VW positioning. "Drivers wanted."

I actually hope that VW keeps the "Drivers wanted" slogan. Changing slogans is lazy advertising. Crispin is on the right track, freshening and reviving VW with some smart, funny ads that feel right.

FAST WOMAN. Coming soon: A series of ads themed, "Pre-Tuned in Deutschland." The ads are a nod to Volkswagen's German engineering heritage and the idea that the auto maker's engineers are better at tuning cars for performance than the aftermarket shops that bolt on turbo chargers, spoilers, dual coffee-can exhaust pipes and spinning wheel covers.

The star of these ads is a white-leather clad dominatrix-type German blonde named Helga who rides along with GTI drivers. On the Volkswagen Web site, vw.com, visitors who configure their own GTI for equipment and features can go for a virtual ride with Helga.

The launch of the GTI and a compelling ad campaign come in the nick of time for VW. It is losing money in the U.S. by the trunkload because of lagging sales and a low U.S. dollar that make profitability a big challenge for the company.

On top of that, the launches last year of the redesigned Passat and Jetta, VW's highest volume cars, were greeted with yawns. The designs were seen as too conservative, and the advertising campaigns for them lacked any of the energy that so effectively propelled VW's comeback from 1995 to 2002. VW sales dropped 7.6%, to 311,000 vehicles, despite the launch of its two most important cars. VW is down more than 100,000 sales a year since 2001.

RIPPLE EFFECT?
In the late 1990s, Arnold Communication, Boston, made its reputation on its Volkswagen work. One TV ad featuring two college-aged young men driving around town to the indie-rock cult song, "Da-da-da" by German techno band Trio, is hailed nine years after it ran as one of the most memorable ads of the 1990s. Arnold's body of work for VW was generally thought of as the best in the ad industry. That was before VW's aspirations of luxury car sales sucked all the fun out of the brand.

Volkswagen has been running the GTI TV ads as the official sponsor of the HDTV broadcast of the Olympics. The company isn't disclosing how much it's spending on the sponsorship and the ad time, but it far outweighs the actual sales potential of the GTI.

That's O.K., though. As Bogusky says, "When ads for one product resonate, it lifts all vehicles." He's right. Just look at how New Beetle saved VW in the U.S. I'm not sure GTI has the heft to do that, but these ads are a good start.
________________________________________
The 4 new GTI "Fast" ads can be downloaded from the video gallery - http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10
 

JJ-R32

Administrator
Staff member
This new ad campaign for the GTI is definitely drawing lots of attention around the internet... what are your guys thoughts on it??
 

Bouston

FIA World Rally Car Champion
Location
Heidelberg, Germany
Car(s)
2006 Subaru STI
Cool. Now maybe VW will re-up the supply of "Fast". VW is headed in the right direction with the GTI.
 
I hope the ads work... but for the other vw models as the write up said could happen.

I was way past sold on the GTI before the ads.
I see the GTI as a true enthusiast car, and really dont want the general public driving it (as odd as that may sound), however i would be good if the GTI made enthusiasts out of everyone who drives one.


btw, because this is a "golf" forum i believe i can say: im glad they are advertising the GTI and not the GLI.
reason: Hatch backs are so useful, and i would really like to see more of them in the states. as said on top gear by clarkson "the fate of the world depends on this car" it isnt that i really dislike the GLI but the GTI may have what it takes to convince people there is a lot of utility in a non sport "utility" vehicle... I HATE SUVs!!! (many reasons, ask if you want more info)
 

JJ-R32

Administrator
Staff member
Here's NY Times article on VW's new ad campaign:
_____________________________________________

VW's Quirky Campaign to Revive U.S. Sales

VOLKSWAGEN may have retired its unwieldy "Fahrvergnügen" slogan, but a quirky new ad campaign for the struggling carmaker is once again invoking its German heritage.

Along with faux-German catch phrases ("Straight outta da Autobahn" and "Fast as schnell"), the campaign introduces Helga, a blonde in white go-go boots who demonstrates the features of the redesigned Volkswagen GTI Mk V hatchback.

"We're going to celebrate our Germanness," said Kerri Martin, the director of brand innovation for Volkswagen of America in Auburn Hills, Mich.

Revisiting the national origin of a brand is a technique other car companies have used with significant success. Last year, Mitsubishi Motors played up Japanese pop culture in a campaign for its redesigned Eclipse sport coupe.

The Volkswagen campaign also introduces a new slogan, "Make friends with your fast," along with a brand icon called the "fast," a gremlinesque character that issues commands to Volkswagen drivers in a deep, robotic voice.

It is an effort by Volkswagen to increase slumping sales while testing the creative chops of its new agency, Crispin Porter & Bogusky in Miami, a unit of MDC Partners.

It is also a considerable test for Crispin, a midsize agency known for its innovative creative work for Burger King and Mini Cooper; the Volkswagen account is its largest to date.

Crispin acquired the estimated $350 million account in September, when Volkswagen dismissed its previous agency, Arnold Worldwide in Boston, without a review. Arnold, part of Havas, held the account for more than a decade and was responsible for creating the long-running theme "Drivers wanted" and successfully introducing the redesigned Beetle in 1998.

Crispin has proved it can handle car campaigns. It introduced the BMW-owned Mini in the United States, but resigned the account last year to take on Volkswagen.

It has a significant challenge in Volkswagen, which is eager to revive its fading presence in the United States. Sales for the German carmaker have been slumping in the last few years, and Volkswagen announced last week that it would cut up to 20,000 jobs in the next three years in an effort to streamline the company.

The television ads for the campaign began running last week during the Olympics, and the print ads will be introduced in the May issues of magazines. Next week, the commercials will begin to run on cable channels like MTV, VH1 and the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

The target audience for the GTI is undeniably male: Volkswagen chose to unveil the new campaign on Thursday by holding a news conference at the office of Playboy magazine in New York. Print ads for the GTI are scheduled to run in magazines like Maxim, Spin, ESPN, Wired and Autoweek.

Beyond the leggy German-accented Helga in a skintight dress, the other women in the ads are typically portrayed as nagging girlfriends who interfere with the male drivers and their "fasts."

In one television commercial that is running during the Olympics, a female passenger asks the male driver, presumably her boyfriend, to roll up the windows because her hair is getting tangled by the wind.

He responds by saying, "Sweetie, it's really hard for me to enjoy the sound of the engine with all that yakking."

Another commercial depicts a man refusing to let his girlfriend enter his car because he does not want to "carry the extra weight."

It is a point that is not lost on Alex Bogusky, the chief creative officer for Crispin, who said he considered the car and its driving experience masculine.

"There are obviously women who will buy the GTI," he said Thursday, but the main emphasis of the ads was the car's performance.

Another theme of the campaign, "Ünpimp Mein Auto," encourages drivers to strip away excessive detailing on their cars, a phenomenon Mr. Bogusky attributed to Hollywood and movies like "2 Fast 2 Furious."

Crispin also plans nontraditional elements, including a partnership with Google's maps unit that will let users share their favorite spots for driving in the United States.

Crispin is scheduled to open a new office in Boulder, Colo., this summer, and will shift a large part of its creative operations to it.

Mr. Bogusky, the agency's creative director, said he and Andrew Keller, the executive creative director of Crispin, would both move to the Boulder office.
 

Skim Diesel

Go Kart Champion
Location
Philly
maybe I'm biased, but these commercials are the most entertaining auto marketing I've seen in a while.
 

cmdrfire

FIA World Rally Car Champion
Location
UK
Advertising for the GTI is just about nil the UK after the pretty amazing "The original, updated" Singin' in the Rain ad... and VW UK aftersales support (beyond servicing etc) is also nil...
I really like the idea of linking stuff up with Google Earth for favourite driving places, etc, but VW UK is far too creativity-deprived to think of something like that.
 

AM59Z2x31

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Australia
In Australia I've never seen an add for the GTI, only for the Golf and the Jetta. If it wasn't for the motoring press no one here would even know it existed.
However, this is a good thing as if they did advertise it we might have a longer wait than the 11 months we have now!
 

Sauceboy01

Touring Car Newbie
Location
Irvine, CA
AM59Z2x31 said:
In Australia I've never seen an add for the GTI, only for the Golf and the Jetta. If it wasn't for the motoring press no one here would even know it existed.
However, this is a good thing as if they did advertise it we might have a longer wait than the 11 months we have now!

Geez, how do you justify an 11 month wait? I mean.. doesn't it kill you that the car you ordered a year previously once recieved is actually and older version of what's available @ the time?
 

GTT

Touring Car Champion
Location
US, Chicago
I think the ad campaign may work for the "youngsters".
For me, I knew the car was coming before the ads hit. Also, the test drive speaks for itself.

I would rather see ads geared towards the performance and refinement of the car rather than go the "my girlfriend bugs me" route. It's my age, I know. :)
Also, the ads are too guy oriented. Granted, many driving enthusiasts are men, but there are a growing number of female enthusiast drivers and VW is doing themselves a disservice.

Also, it's hard to tell if the ads are pushing up the sales or the simply fact that this new GTI IS a very nicely engineered and assembled vehicle. Ads can help bring attention to a product, but he product has to perform in order to be a sales success.

TT
 
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