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By Seb Joseph, News editor

March 6, 2015 | 4 min read

Volkswagen is using motion-cap technology, usually reserved for Hollywood blockbusters, to visualise the myriad of data and technology emanating from its latest Passat in a series of online films.

The German car maker wants to become as famous for innovation as it is for quality, reliability and value for money. So much so in fact that it is going for broke in its latest digital marketing endeavour that sees it partner with Tribal Worldwide, Marshmallow Laser Feast and the clever boffins at Andy Serkis’ Imaginarium Studios, to bring its most technologically advanced Passat to life.

Four films have been shot, each blending a weird, matrix-style world of visualised data with the car in its everyday setting. To achieve the effect, Volkswagen rigged a Passat with infrared cameras which collected positional data that was translated in real time and used to create a CGI environment around the car. The end result is a myriad of eerily surreal visualisations of the technology working from the car before a bang cut pulls the viewer into the real world.

For example, an ad for the Passat’s park assist (see above) starts off with it driving in the virtual world and as the car starts to park, the soundtrack swells and cuts straight to a driver showing off the feature to his amazed passenger. It ends with the driver humorously raising his hands to show the car parked itself - throwback to the charm and warmth of Volkswagen’s previous ads. Other ads in the series show off the car’s area view, side view and city emergency-breaking features in a similar way.

It marks a change in tact for the Passat, which had its last big advertising push three years ago. Until now the model has been marketed toward an older buyer but with all its new features Volkswagen believes it now has a proposition capable of pulling in a younger crowd.

Whereas its previous ad campaign for the model was markedly different - dialling up the human and cool elements of the car without ever pushing the technology - to target mid-life crisis men.

Silke Anderson, Volkswagen UK communications manager, told The Drum that the latest Passat is the most important car the business will launch this year.

Innovation has always been a core part of the business, she added, but it needed to be more overt in its communications, to really match the advertising up with the product. The car maker will determine how successful this plan has been by tracking unprompted awareness around the brand’s association with innovation and technology.

“The [technology focus] is where the brand is right now,” Anderson added. "Innovation has always been core to everything that we do and with the Passat so full of technology we felt it was the perfect opportunity to bring this tech to life and get people talking about it in an excited way. Unless you drive the car then it’s hard to visualise how the systems and the sensors are working.

“[The films] are an adjunct to the mainstream communications that we’re doing. We’re trying to appeal to a slightly younger target group with this car who we know are more digitally connected and more in tune with those channels.”

The Passat went on sale in January. Volkswagen’s global sales for 2014 totalled 10.14 million vehicles, slightly behind Toyota’s 10.23 million. In its latest quarter, the business posted a 4 per cent revenue jump year-on-year.

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