Title	OPEL'S AIRMAIL FOR VOLKSWAGEN
Brand	OPEL GENERAL MOTORS AUSTRIA
Product/Service	OPEL
Category	A09. USE OR INTEGRATION OF DIGITAL OR SOCIAL MEDIA
Entrant Company	WIEN NORD Vienna, AUSTRIA
Contributing Company	WIEN NORD Vienna, AUSTRIA
Media Agency	CARAT AUSTRIA Vienna, AUSTRIA

Name	Company	Position
Bernd Wilfinger	WIEN NORD	Creative Director
Eduard Böhler	WIEN NORD	Creative Director
Andreas Lierzer	WIEN NORD	Creative Director
Katja Claus	WIEN NORD	Graphic Designer
Christoph Pausz	WIEN NORD	Copywriter
Christian Hellinger	WIEN NORD	Copywriter
Markus Mazuran	WIEN NORD	Account Executive
Louise Hudson	WIEN NORD	Account Manager
Philip Jäcklein	WIEN NORD	Agency Producer
Albert Waaijenberg		Producer
Michael Schmidt	Vi Knallgrau	Online Consultant

The Campaign

The campaign appeared in Austria. Branded entertainment in Austria has a long history and people are good with it. But this also means, they really want to get something worthy their attention. There aren’t any restrictions to branded content as long as it doesn’t affects human rights and the legal framework.

Results

In their never ending rivalry with Volkswagen, Opel occupied the world’s biggest Volkswagen event, where 170.000 fanatical fans and all the important Volkswagen officials were celebrating their brand. Just the right place for Opel to make a self confident statement in front of the world’s press. Weeks before the convention we circulated apparently leaked, home made videos, of pigeons in "squadron training“ online and systematically spread an absurd rumor throughout Volkswagen fan communities: Opel is training pigeons to poop exclusively on Volkswagen cars an plans to send the birds to VW's annual convention! National TV stations and newspapers covered the story, the public got curious and Volkswagen fans got so anxious, that they distributed self made covers and repellant sprays to protect their cars. The fear of a pigeon air raid grew stronger and stronger. And eventually, what we had planned to happen, did: NOTHING. The entire pigeon thread played out exclusively in the minds of the Volkswagen fans! In reality, we only released white doves to show VW it was finally time to make peace. Classic Media also covered this and we enlighted the curious public with a final video about the media experiment on youtube.

At the Volkswagen Convention with 170.000 Volkswagen fans, Opel is the main enemy.Weeks before the convention we circulated apparently leaked, home made videos, of pigeons in "squadron training" online and systematically spread an absurd rumor throughout Volkswagen fan communities:Opel is training pigeons to poop exclusively on Volkswagen cars an plans to send the birds to VW's convention!National TV stations and newspapers covered the story.And eventually, what we had planned to happen at the event, did: Nothing.But a lot of Volkswagen fans got so anxious, that they distributed self made covers and repellant sprays to protect their cars at the convention.

Millions were caught up in the pigeon phenomenon. In the course of the media experiment Opel was featured as an up-to-date brand, which is aware of people’s life and needs in nowadays world, their media use and all appropriate expectations. Furthermore we prooved Opel takes advantage of relevant developements, even the ones outside of the car industry, and therefore always is one step ahead of the competitors. In the End peace between Opel and Volkswagen was achieved. And of course for Opel and its fans it was a lot of fun too, as well as for the whole car industry and many others. Thanks to the huge media coverage initiated by the prank – a lot of people had been entertained for weeks, even a few Volkswagen Fans. To quantify this absurd media experiment: With almost no budget spendings we achieved 3.8 Mio. media impressions.