Yannis

VW's Quirky Campaign to Revive U.S. Sales

VOLKSWAGEN may have retired its unwieldy "Fahrvergnügen" slogan, but a quirky new ad campaign for the struggling carmaker is once again invoking its German heritage.

Along with faux-German catch phrases ("Straight outta da Autobahn" and "Fast as schnell"), the campaign introduces Helga, a blonde in white go-go boots who demonstrates the features of the redesigned Volkswagen GTI Mk V hatchback.

"We're going to celebrate our Germanness," said Kerri Martin, the director of brand innovation for Volkswagen of America in Auburn Hills, Mich.

Revisiting the national origin of a brand is a technique other car companies have used with significant success. Last year, Mitsubishi Motors played up Japanese pop culture in a campaign for its redesigned Eclipse sport coupe.

The Volkswagen campaign also introduces a new slogan, "Make friends with your fast," along with a brand icon called the "fast," a gremlinesque character that issues commands to Volkswagen drivers in a deep, robotic voice.

It is an effort by Volkswagen to increase slumping sales while testing the creative chops of its new agency, Crispin Porter & Bogusky in Miami, a unit of MDC Partners.

It is also a considerable test for Crispin, a midsize agency known for its innovative creative work for Burger King and Mini Cooper; the Volkswagen account is its largest to date.

Crispin acquired the estimated $350 million account in September, when Volkswagen dismissed its previous agency, Arnold Worldwide in Boston, without a review. Arnold, part of Havas, held the account for more than a decade and was responsible for creating the long-running theme "Drivers wanted" and successfully introducing the redesigned Beetle in 1998.

Crispin has proved it can handle car campaigns. It introduced the BMW-owned Mini in the United States, but resigned the account last year to take on Volkswagen.

It has a significant challenge in Volkswagen, which is eager to revive its fading presence in the United States. Sales for the German carmaker have been slumping in the last few years, and Volkswagen announced last week that it would cut up to 20,000 jobs in the next three years in an effort to streamline the company.

The television ads for the campaign began running last week during the Olympics, and the print ads will be introduced in the May issues of magazines. Next week, the commercials will begin to run on cable channels like MTV, VH1 and the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

The target audience for the GTI is undeniably male: Volkswagen chose to unveil the new campaign on Thursday by holding a news conference at the office of Playboy magazine in New York. Print ads for the GTI are scheduled to run in magazines like Maxim, Spin, ESPN, Wired and Autoweek.

Beyond the leggy German-accented Helga in a skintight dress, the other women in the ads are typically portrayed as nagging girlfriends who interfere with the male drivers and their "fasts."

In one television commercial that is running during the Olympics, a female passenger asks the male driver, presumably her boyfriend, to roll up the windows because her hair is getting tangled by the wind.

He responds by saying, "Sweetie, it's really hard for me to enjoy the sound of the engine with all that yakking."

Another commercial depicts a man refusing to let his girlfriend enter his car because he does not want to "carry the extra weight."

It is a point that is not lost on Alex Bogusky, the chief creative officer for Crispin, who said he considered the car and its driving experience masculine.

"There are obviously women who will buy the GTI," he said Thursday, but the main emphasis of the ads was the car's performance.

Another theme of the campaign, "Ünpimp Mein Auto," encourages drivers to strip away excessive detailing on their cars, a phenomenon Mr. Bogusky attributed to Hollywood and movies like "2 Fast 2 Furious."

Crispin also plans nontraditional elements, including a partnership with Google's maps unit that will let users share their favorite spots for driving in the United States.

Crispin is scheduled to open a new office in Boulder, Colo., this summer, and will shift a large part of its creative operations to it.

Mr. Bogusky, the agency's creative director, said he and Andrew Keller, the executive creative director of Crispin, would both move to the Boulder office.

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siko

Sounds like VW is back to their old school witty ads!

Yannis

Lol. Gangsta ad.

zetableh

Ünpimp Mein Auto

BRILLIANT!
/Guiness

Mirage77

I think this is quite embarrasing, really. But I guess if VW is never to go back to being upmarket in the US, then it works for them.

shonguiz

Imhotep Evil

Not only is it embarasing, but it isn't even original.
There was once an BMW add "BMW goes like schnell". And the themes like the driver, driver's car, fast were used before by BMW and others.
Just look at this:

Imhotep Evil

Also it doesn't adress the main problems.
The "Mexico syndrome" and the people's car image impregnated in people's heads over the decades witch VW now tries to escape.
Either sell Skodas badged as VW in USA or terminate the VW brand sales in USA and replace them with Skodas and Seats.

bum-man

Absolutely hysterical advertisements. I haven't laughed that much at a car ad since I saw the Ford Sport Ka commercials.

Giannis

i think the best gti commersial is the one played in greece. really funny and nice. Yannis do you know where can somebody download it?
It says golf gti, for boys who were always men. and shows a boy crashing his bycicle, a boy looking at mens' magazines (playboy) a small boy looking at a nice woman. and then someone ''playing'' with his gti...

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