Background

Social media led activation campaign to drive sales and test drives for the Volkswagen Touareg in China. The Touareg faces awareness problems as an innovative performance SUV with, so, as the title of the campaign suggests, we needed to show that the Touareg does his own stunts too. It stars Wu Jing, China’s number 1 action hero. He is an actor, writer, director, producer and he is famous for doing his own stunts. In our online film, Wu Jing teaches an unassuming everyday Volkswagen Touareg test driver to do his own stunts. The film activates fans to create their own videos with Wu Jing through the popular Vlog app VUE. It went viral on Douyin and were used as a recruitment tool for a nation wide test drive events where drivers could do their own stunts.

Describe the creative idea

Volkswagen in China is known as the People’s Car. Hence our approach had to be inclusive and activate the fanbase of our testimonial Wu Jing. Wu Jing is known for big action movies - tanks, planes, boats, helicopters - the bigger the explosions, the better. So we needed to have a little bit of that bang, of course. But what Wu Jing is less known for is his dry sense of humor. So we intentionally put Wu Jing on the passenger seat and let the driver seat free for the people on social media.

Describe the strategy

Online to Offline Test Drive Activation: The ‘Do your now stunts’ online film and pre-roll ads based on the film point to a mobile or desktop landing page, where users can register for nation-wide test drive events. Social Media Activation: A custom made feature within the popular VLog Platform VUE invites people to replace the test driver in our online film with their own selfie videos so it looked like they starred in the film right next to Wu Jing. These user generated videos were shared on Douyin (TikTok) and were used as a recruitment tool to test drive events. Offline to Online - Dealership: The test drives tracks were designed according to the driving stunts in the online film. The test drivers were filmed during the test drive and the footage was edited into customized videos and shared on the social media channels.

Describe the execution

With limited media budget we used targeted channels and targeting technology to recruit potential test drivers. Our TA are30 years old+ with 500k+ annual income who live and work in China’s key cities. They are married with children. They are social media savvy and frequently use social media to inform themselves about new products. They are experienced with premium cars and love driving much more than the average premium brand car owners. We used Pre-roll ad based on big data enabled advanced targeting tags of internet browsing behavior related to premium auto brand. Display banner ads on auto verticals targeting those who has browsed premium C segment SUV in the past month.

List the results

The competitive prized competitors offer more brand for the buck in the eyes of Chinese consumers, and hit by economic slowdown, the C-SUV segment marked the worst growth in years. Although the 2019 Touareg tops previous generations in features, not many drivers were aware about its leading technology, sharp design and excellent handling. When the total China auto market declined by 7% and C-SUV segment declined by 8% in 2019, VW Touareg went against the tide and outperformed the whole market by a landslide. During the two-month campaign period, sales of VW Touareg increased by 160% compared to the same period in 2018 contributing to an overall nearly 50% annual sales growth in 2019. ’Do your own stunts’ delivered the highest sales figures in the history of the Volkswagen Touareg in China, to date. On VUE: 8,337 UGC videos / 600,000 views On Douyin: 20,590,000 views / 610,000 engagement