I have to admit, I’m getting a little tired of hyperventilating over every new CP+B Volkswagen campaign. But then I start to think about their well-conceived, integrated vehicle launches and I get a little wistful. And then, like usual, I render some more genuflection their way.
The basics. Dislocate a random but camera-friendly dude from the Colorado office. Get him to drive around NYC in a new Rabbit "taxi" for a couple of weeks. Give out rides for free. Chat up the fares. Pack the hatch chocablock full of sophisticated technogear to record what happens. Then shake the secret viral juju stick around the war-room campfire. And boom! Yet another "rabbit" punch successfully administered to the online-advertising world.
http://www.gypsycabproject.com/
And for the techies, all the goodies from Apple:
http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/crispinporterbogusky/
Daniel Turman
PS: Thanks to Mauro Alencar and Jalopnik for the tip.
Comments
Connections
Interesting concept but once again the ‘creatives’ lost one core item in the fury of being cool and edgy… how about a link to further explore the product? I know, the easy response is that’s too in your face. However, after watching some of the taxi-cab confession like spots I became much more interested in the new Golf/Rabbit than spying on hot chicks in the back of a free cab ride in NYC. Unfortunately, no link to VW.com, Rabbit.com, etc. Once again another example of kids with tools who have lost sight of who’s really paying the ad budget and why… Do you Orgies agree?
We like to call ourselves “Organics”. although your suggestion has a nice ring to it :^) Speaking for myself, I agree that for all the whizz bang of branded entertainment sites developed by traditional agencies, they almost always fall down when it comes to delivering on the sales component of the web.
I think it’s an inevitable that traditional agencies approach the web experience as an opportunity to create something cool that raises brand awareness, because that’s what they’ve been getting paid to do for decades.
We’ve pointed this out again and again in our reviews, but it starts to sound like sour grapes after a while.
Misha Cornes
Good point Kevin, but I do wonder whether the creatives lost this core item or intentionally left it out. It does smack of pretense to leave out something so fundamental. I can’t imagine putting a campaign component so robust in front of the client without it. But then again, with $400M to play with there is certainly no shortage of other, more direct forms of advertising–including an engaging build and price engine that allows you to “breed” your Rabbit with a mate of your choosing (http://www.vwfeatures.com/rabbit.html), and typically clever tier-one TV spots (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8EQ8HRTSlQ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMpoBL5LZGM). Who knows. But so far the approach seems to be working since VW’s sales have shown consistent improvement since the acccount turned.