VW: The People's Reviewer

So it would seem there's a new bandwagon when it comes to online auto promotion. You have a new model coming out and the done thing is to get the public to review your new car and offer them a chance to win one. Simple enough. So.....

To the best of my knowledge the first major promotion of this type was done by Ford. Either their German, US or British Fiesta campaigns (I'm not entirely sure which got there first), followed shortly afterwards by their US Mustang 2010 campaign. More recently Toyota Ireland also followed suit with a similar style campaign. And the next folks (pardon the terrible pun) joining the party are Volkswagen. In an somewhat similar format to the other campaigns, Volkswagen are searching the digital sphere to find: The People's Reviewer.

So if all these campaigns are so similar why would I bother writing about it? Well to be honest, with the exception of the Mustang 2010 campaign, Volkswagen are (IMHO) going about this far better then anyone else. The campaign, developed for Volkswagen by Tribal DDB London, utilises a simpler yet far more rewarding mechanic then any of the other European examples.

VW asked the public to submit 'audition' videos (via YouTube) about why they should be chosen to test drive, review and comment on the new VW Tiguan. The campaign was promoted through a number of Social Media channels including Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Flickr. Essentially the promotion was designed to drive as much user-generated online / digital buzz around the Tiguan.

Over 1,000 people created and submitted audition videos, and the next step was to narrow this down to nine reviewers. These nine reviewers were then given a Tiguan for a week. During the that week they had to shoot a short video review of the car. These videos are then all voted on by a public vote and the the highest number of votes gets to drive away a new Tiguan. The campaign itself is setup through a series of three heats. Three reviewers per heat, with one person going through to a final three person finale. These three then compete for the new car.

Interestingly VW also took the very smart direction of teaching the contestants how they could best build followers and win votes, through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

So what have they achieved so far? Well there's over a 1,000 youtube videos all tagged up for the Tiguan. There are numerous FlickR! albums, blogs and Tweets, all talking about the Tiguan. Ultimately they all link back to both the VW site and campaign microsite. Achievement: more rich online content then you could ever hope to generate through non-social channels. Also consider the cost implications - aside from they agency (management and development) costs, some PPC (I would hope) and a small amount of social ads - they give away a car, at cost. So basically, this was a seriously cheap campaign for the results it has already achieved.

Of course you're probably thinking that this all counts for little if the voting element doesn't draw a lot of attention. Solution, there are also a huge stock of prizes for voters including an extended three-month Tiguan test drive and holidays (including trips to Bath, Venice and London).

Tribal DBB commented on the campaign, saying "The journey has had us meet some crazy characters like Dirk the artistic knitter/busker/crime novelist with outsized hair and Johnny, a gregarious import/exporter who towed a Winnebago plus a van and two mini race cars all in one go. We think it's a great campaign that combines social media with an offline experience while bolstered by a traditional media spend."

This is the promotional video that VW/Tribal DDb created for the campaign...



Another recent campaign from Tribal DDB can be found here.

No Social Media in China

Since riots broke out in Xinjiang province in early July Social Media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have been completely shut down from within China. However during the last week reports have also started filtering out of China that Chinese Social Media sites such as Fanfou, Digu and Jiwai have now also been shut down. It seems that the Chinese authorities have massively extended their crackdown on all Social Media both domestic and international.

This is a major development in Chinese censorship and represents the first time that there has been a full order to censors both Western and Chinese sites. A Shanghai-based digital analyst has commented that the cause of the shut downs is still completely unknown. While it has become common practise for the Chinese government to operate shut-downs during politically sensitive times and events, there is nothing specific coming up. The last major Social Media shut-down was seen in the lead up to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square riots.

In good news, Tim Haynes general manager of Starcom IP China, said "Despite the censorship efforts, Chinese netizens have discovered alternative methods of accessing sites such as Twitter. There are always alternative avenues to be found to access these sites. As soon as someone puts a wall or barricade around them, there’s always a way around it."

What’s Next In Marketing & Advertising

During the week, Paul Isakson Head of Strategy with Space 150, gave a presentation at Marketing 2.0:unfiltered, an event put on by Espresso. Paul's presentation was an updated version of a presentation he gave about a year ago at one of Space 150's monthly 'What's Next?" sessions.

Paul was asked to talk about what's going on in marketing and how things are changing. The updated presentation looks at the industry a year on and shows Paul's insights on how the industry is changing.

DC Shoes & Ken Block

How do you engage an audience for seven and a half minutes? DC Shoes decided the best way to do it was to let Ken Block do what he does best!

Even if you've seen Ken stunt drifting before, this will blow your mind. Sit back and be amazed...

Open Happiness

For those of you (us) too young to remember, the year was 1971 and for the first time in advertising history the world was confronted by a tv spot that did not fit into a nice 'advertising' box. Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)" ad campaign completely distorted the line that previously existed between advertising and pop culture. People loved it, and not just Americans or British audiences, it was a global phenomenon (there's a great overview of the whole experience in the Library of Congress) .

So it may have come as no surprise to many that Coca-Cola would attempt the same feat again, however this time they have taken it a step further. "Open Happiness" is a massive collaborative project involving Gnarls Barkley's Cee-Lo Green, Panic! At the Disco's Brendon Urie, Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy, Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes and Janelle Monae. A veritable Smörgåsbord of modern pop music. But how do the two concepts differ and how are they alike?

The following is the full 4min 25sec "Open Happiness" video, directed by Alan Ferguson. See if you can notice the single most significant thing about this video...



--Update--
The original 'full version' video for this, features a coke logo at the very end. That video was removed from YouTube and this is the only replacement I could find, unfortunately the logo has been edited out in this.

Did you get it? It's fairly obvious in those last 2 seconds. For 263 of 265 seconds of video, there is not a single Coca-Cola logo in sight. That is without doubt one of the most expensive pieces of "adver-tainment" that you will come across, and even though the logo only comes in at the end of the piece, you knew the whole way through exactly what it was for. The brand is more then a logo. The brand is a collective of all the work that has been put into it in every piece of advertising and marketing you have ever seen.

"Open Happiness" was produced by Polow Da Don and Butch Walker, writen by Cee-Lo Green (and co-written by Polow Da Don and Butch Walker), and directed by Alan Ferguson.

In a follow up to an earlier post of mine, you may enjoy the new extended version of the Calvin Harris 'Coke Creatures - Yeah Yeah Yeah La La La Dance Party'...