THE REVERSED TRAILER

TitleTHE REVERSED TRAILER
BrandVOLKSWAGEN NORWAY/ HARALD A. MØLLER
Product/ServiceVOLKSWAGEN TRAILER ASSIST
Category B07. Events & Stunts
Entrant TRY Oslo, NORWAY
Idea Creation TRY Oslo, NORWAY
Media Placement MEDIACOM Oslo, NORWAY
Media Placement 2 BE ON Oslo, NORWAY
PR TRY Oslo, NORWAY
Production BACON OSLO Oslo, NORWAY
Credits
Name Company Position
Øystein Halvorsen TRY Creative Director/ Copywriter
Karin Lund TRY Art Director
Preben Moan TRY Art Director
Camilla Bjørnhaug TRY Copywriter
Eirik Sørensen TRY Art Director
Finn Knudsen TRY Art Director
Morten Berger Karlsen TRY Copywriter
Morten Polmar TRY Account Director
Cathrine Wennersten TRY Account Manager
Annette Werner APT Digital Producer
Martin Klausen APT Webdesigner
Magnus Bergman APT Web Developer
Andreas Riiser Bacon OSL Director
Ola Narum Berg Bacon OSL Producer
Tommy Lybekk TRY Mac Designer

The Campaign

We decided to take a humorous approach. To create attention to Trailer Assist, we built a somewhat special trailer. This trailer actually had an engine and towed the Passat, and not vice-versa. In a way, we exaggerated the advantages of the Trailer assist feature.

Execution

We split a car in two and built a trailer around it. The walls were see-through plexiglass covered with transparent foil, so that the driver could look out, but no one could look in. And then we let the trailer tow the Passat. This became online films. Claim: Volkswagen Trailer Assist. Backing up with a trailer will be this easy. Well, almost.

The campaign reached the following results in a country with 5 million people:•We created a Facebook reach of more than 55 million•The behind-the scenes film had 23 million views on Facebook•1.100.000 liked it•450.000 shared it•130.000 commented it•We reached 2,1 million views on YouTube•The stunt was described in more than 250 online articles in more than 46 countries with more than 396 million potential readers.•The campaign was launched in a post diesel gate atmosphere with a lot of negative buzz around the brand and managed to break the negative curve.

The Situation

The campaign was launched in a post diesel gate atmosphere with a lot of negative buzz around the brand in the Norwegian market. The campaign managed to break the negative curve and created more positive than negative buzz for the first time after the scandal surfaced. It also created a lot of buzz for the product, with over 42 million views on Facebook and got more than 250 online articles in 46 countries with more than 396 million potential readers.

The Strategy

In most parts of the world, Volkswagen planned for big, emotional “trust us ”campaigns. Norwegians are a special kind of people, humorous and not taking themselves to seriously. So we decided to take a humorous approach. I guess you can say that we "cheated" again. But this time be open about it. We wanted to show the benefit of the product in an entertaining and positive way. Volkswagen strikes back!