CHRIS WILLO
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Europe - China - Korea
众UX
The VW
People’s Car
Awards:
1x Silver & 2x Bronze @ Effies
Silver @ China Intl Award Festival
Shortlist @ Cannes
Silver & Bronze @ 中国4A奖
Background:
Volkswagen is the world’s largest car brand, but virtually all its business decisions are made from its HQ in Wolfsburg, Germany.
For China, VW’s biggest market, we needed a different approach to keep VW’s brand reputation top of mind, where it was perceived as a car for your dad’s generation.
Insight:
Volkswagen has always been the “People’s Car”.
So when it announced the development of a new prototype, shouldn’t we include the opinions and preferences of its largest consumer base?
Idea:
Volkswagen presents “The People’s Prototype”
The first-ever prototype, not imported from Germany, but made in China, for China.
Execution:
First, we needed to develop a ground-breaking new research tool to include our young Gen Z target audience. So we collaborated with MangoTV, China’s leading Gen Z TV channel, to produce a 5-part interactive TV series. Cleverly disguised as a love/drama story, each episode presented the viewer with carefully curated popup questions that affected the continuation of the story. These interactive options varied from storyline outcomes, lifestyle choices, vehicle features… all naturally incorporated into the overall story of the show.
This enabled us to compile an enormous amount of big data about the consumer’s preferences, specifically tailored to the Chinese market. We then turned this data into reality, by partnering with 3 leading Chinese tech startups & local manufacturers to build the prototype of a new generation and unveiled it one of the largest tech conventions in China.
Results:
It drove Volkswagen China’s biggest PR buzz in years, with over 180 million viewers participating in the show, over 42 million viewer decisions across the 5-part interactive show, and a massive brand likeability spike from 43% to 78%
Making this Volkswagen’s most successful engagement campaign, to once again become the people’s car for a whole new generation.