Introduction
In 2013, Volkswagen decided to finish the production of Kombi, because the Brazilian law forced all cars that would be produced after 2014 to have ABS and airbag. For the company, the financial damage was a big problem and Kombi was estimated to die without any goodbye.
But, after the announcement, lots of fans of the car started to send letters, videos and requests saying that Volkswagen couldn´t stop to produce the most beloved car and from this point the insight of having the Kombi farewell campaign just started.
From the very beginning the first action of the company was create a last edition version of Kombi with a luxury price to start the awareness of the campaign.
Kombi Farewell Campaign
Project made at Volkswagen
Briefing
Create a farewell campaign for Kombi involving lovers of the car, fan clubs, and celebrities with the goal to generate spontaneous media and brand awareness for VW.
Challenge:
The Kombi van was the longest continuous automotive production in history, so the challenge was to create a campaign that wasn´t selling the car, but still needed to be engaging, emotional and relevant for the fans of Volkswagen.
Campaign:
An ad announcing the end of the production of Kombi started the campaign. After the spontaneous media around this advertising a hot site was launched with the purpose to bring people close to the company sending a story that they lived with the van.
786 stories were send to the hot site, but only the 12 most emotional were chosen to be part of the next ad with the “Last Wishes” of Kombi. The ad presented 15 wishes, honoring 12 fans with gifts that were related to their stories and more 3 special desires: an encounter with all Kombi´s of the world; the creation of a book with all the stories that were sent to the hot site and going back home.
During 3 months, all the 12 fans received different presents from Kombi, as a hubcap autographed by Pelé, an odometer with the longest possible travelled distance and a clay miniature Kombi.
At the end, all the wishes were realized, least going back home. So, to give a proper goodbye to Kombi a video was published showing the whole journey of the van, all the wishes being realized and Kombi visiting their “brother” – Ben Pon Jr. – son of the inventor of Kombi, realizing, finally, their last wish.
Insight:
When cars are launched on the market they need a “launch campaign”, but just one iconic car deserves a “farewell campaign”.
Process:
During all the process I worked directly with the agency to refine and organise all the steps. I was the only digital responsible for this job inside VW, so I had to deal with different roles, as strategy, talking with fan clubs and helping the agency with extra information, reports and analysis, social media, control of the hot site development and events.
Basically, I managed the campaign since the briefing until the publication of the video to guarantee that all the steps would be aligned and engaging for the fans.
Agency: AlmapBBDO
