The Brief

This was to launch the new Volkswagen Golf GTI Mark VI. We approached 5,000 car enthusiasts. Drawn from existing and new customers. The problem was the new GTI looked exactly like the old one. So we created a Driving Academy. A competitive online space where people competed for track day. Over weeks they competed and learnt race driving through online tutorials. At the end of the course, the top 200 students were selected and they compared the previous model with the new ones on the track. After the track days our lucky 200 spread the word all over car blogs.

Creative Execution

Volkswagen literally means the people's car. We put our car in the hands of the people and let them decide for themselves.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We needed to get people to experience the difference XDL made, not just tell them about it. We had enough faith in the car that if people drove it they would buy it. And boy did they. Volkswagen wanted to sell 700 GTI's in the first 2 months. Because of this campaign Volkswagen sold 1000 GTI's in the first 2 weeks. Plus there is still a waiting list which is 6 months long.

Results

We initially targeted 5,000 car enthusiasts. They invited their friends and by the time the campaign started we had 26,212 people competing for spots at our ultimate test drive. Well over 100,000 people visited the site. Volkswagen expected to sell 700 GTI's in 2 months. We sold 1,000 GTI's in 2 weeks. And there is still a 6 month waiting list to buy one.