| Title | BUILDING THE PEOPLE'S CAR |
| Brand | VOLKSWAGEN GROUP CHINA |
| Product / Service | THE PEOPLE'S CAR PROJECT |
| Category | B02. Consumer Products |
| Entrant | PROXIMITY BEIJING, CHINA |
| Entrant Company | PROXIMITY BEIJING, CHINA |
| Advertising Agency | PROXIMITY BEIJING, CHINA |
| Advertising Agency 2 | GOODSTEIN Beijing, CHINA |
| Media Agency | MEDIACOM Beijing, CHINA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Mediacom | Media Agency | |
| Joy Wang | Pixomondo | Post Producer |
| Wil Manning | Pixomondo | Art Director |
| Nelson Quan | Pixomondo | Editor |
| John Dietz | Pixomondo | Assistant Director |
| Jan Heinze/Iva Modrah | Pixomondo | Ep/Producer |
| Paul Morris/Jay Hubert | Pixomondo | Dops |
| Kenneth Bi | Director | |
| Wolfgang Kaller | Greenkern | Planner |
| Alex Csergo | Proximity China | Md |
| Enko Von Arnim/Lorraine Zhang/Carolyn Yu/Olivia Ding | Proximity China | Accounts Team |
| Tobias Bordal/Maggie Ge | Proximity China | Social Team |
| Catherine Liu/Vivian Xie/Marco Decesaris | Proximity China | Pm/Data Strategy And Analytics |
| Cameron Rimington | Proximity China | Head Of Ia |
| Maureen Sherrard | Goodstein | Agency Producer |
| Sofia Lv/Zoro Cui/Sophie D'agostino | Proximity China | Designers |
| Andy Li/Felipe Ferreira | Proximity China | Art Directors |
| Derek Liu/Vivian Liu/Felix Zhang | Proximity China | Copywriters |
| Daryl Villanueva/Flavio Vidigal | Proximity China | Associate Creative Directors |
| Georg Warga | Goodstein | Executive Creative Director |
The 10-part online series averaged 1.2 million viewers per episode, boosting the rate of new followers on social media by 300%.* The People’s Car became a top 10 trending topic on Weibo (China’s Twitter).** As a result, Volkswagen purchase intent increased by 18%.* The People’s Car was the first Volkswagen created by the people of China. With 260,000 user ideas inspiring its final design, the People’s Car became the biggest crowdsourced product in history.*** * Source: PCP User Database Report, 2013 ** Source: Sina Weibo Daily Trending Topics Ranking, Feb 27th, 2013 *** Source: T+D Reporting and Analytics
In 2013, Volkswagen created an online series where they invited the top automotive design students in China to compete and build the People’s Car. Over 10 episodes, the student teams took 104 of the best ideas from the people and created concept sketches, clay models, and 3D renderings. The series aired on our website, www.zaoche.cn, and on Chinese video sites. With the People’s Choice, a digital poll, viewers got to vote for their favorite design each episode. The celebrities featured in the series regularly posted behind-the-scenes content on Weibo (Chinese Twitter) to stir discussion amongst fans about the future of cars. Finally, one design was chosen to be the People’s Car and the winning students were granted internships at Volkswagen. At the 2013 Shanghai Auto, Volkswagen unveiled the People’s Car, accompanied with its very own commercial. Online audiences and the press alike saw how the people’s ideas integrated into the features of the People’s Car.
Volkswagen has always built cars for the people. The brand name in both German and Chinese literally means the ‘People’s Car’. Today in China, Volkswagen faces increased competition and falling market share. To counter these challenges, we had to reposition Volkswagen as a more innovative brand for a new, digitally-connected China. In 2011, Volkswagen launched the People’s Car Project to inspire the Chinese people to imagine the future of cars. We reached both new and existing car owners, and as a result, 30 million people submitted over 260,000 car ideas to the online platform. As an epic conclusion to the project, and ultimately, to honor the people’s creativity, we had to take all their ideas and create one car.