EASY OPEN SEATS

TitleEASY OPEN SEATS
BrandVOLKSWAGEN
Product / ServiceTECHNOLOGY
CategoryA05. Automotive
EntrantDDB SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation DDB SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Additional Company MOTH PROJECTS Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Additional Company 2 ALFRED Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Ben Welsh DDB Sydney Chief Creative Officer
Tara Ford DDB Sydney Executive Creative Director
Jade Manning DDB Sydney Creative Partner
Vince Osmond DDB Sydney Creative Partner
Hannah King DDB Sydney Art Director
Chris Ott DDB Sydney Copywriter
Shaun O’Connor DDB Sydney Creative Technology Director
Paul Jansen DDB Sydney Senior Designer
Ramon Rodriguez DDB Sydney Senior Designer
Sevda Cemo DDB Sydney Head of Integrated Content
Jeff Edwards DDB Sydney Senior Producer
Jessica Belgiovane DDB Sydney Senior Producer
John Wood DDB Sydney Senior Print Producer
Graham Sweet DDB Sydney Planning Partner
Brooke Pilton Mango Sydney Head of Experiential
Michael Ozard Mango Sydney Production Director
Andrew Sroufe Mango Sydney Senior Account Director
Andrew Kelly Mango Sydney Senior Sponsorship Manger
Luke Shanhan Moth Projects Director
Stuart Couzens Alfred Director
Renier Jansen van Vuuren Alfred Production Manager
Sam Spry Alfred Project Manager

The Campaign

It’s a great Australian tradition to have a cold beer and hot pie at the footy. Unfortunately, when your hands are full, the folding stadium seating can become impossible. So, we took the thinking behind Volkswagen’s Easy Open Tailgate technology and applied it to the seats. Creating Volkswagen Easy Open Seats. Now, with a swipe of the foot, footy fans can open their seats when their hands are full.

Creative Execution

Working with the Sydney Swans, we created and installed a bank of bespoke Easy Open Seats inside the SCG, where fans could physically interact with the technology firsthand, throughout the 2017 season. The experience wasn’t limited to fans in the stadium. Content films and consumer competitions extended the idea across digital, social and broadcast channels, demonstrating Volkswagen’s innovative technology to consumers throughout Australia and beyond. We also encouraged consumers to participate and submit their own ideas on how they would enhance the AFL experience using Volkswagen tech - and rewarding the best entries with money-can’t-buy experiences throughout the year.

We created a season-long media channel that was not only helpful, but demonstrated the convenience of Volkswagen technology, in a relevant and intimate way to over 5000 individual fans. These individual engagements were amplified live on the big screen to over 112,000 cheering supporters. This got pushed to 1.1 million online fans, which achieved over 1.2 million PR impressions and 130 fan ideas. But the most important result: Zero spilt drinks.

We turned stadium seating into a media channel. By applying Volkswagen’s innovative technology to solve a problem faced by Aussie sports fans, our media became our message - while simultaneously reinforcing a long-standing partnership between the Sydney Swans football team and Volkswagen.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

We developed an awareness-building strategy aimed at increasing both penetration and loyalty. We not only demonstrated Volkswagen’s innovative technology in a way that supplied genuine utility for our AFL audience, but also emulated the Volkswagen experience indiscriminately to both VW and non-VW drivers alike - getting us firmly top of mind for their next upgrade or switch to Volkswagen.

Links

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