To promote its line of Beetle cars, Volkswagen teamed up with Canadian band Walk Off The Earth to make an interactive music video.
Playing off the band’s 2012 runaway YouTube hit – a cover of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know” in which all five band members play the song on one guitar generating more than 150 million views – Volkswagen had the band make music using different parts of three Beetle cars.
Consumers can watch three different versions of the video, each inspired by one of the three Beetle cars. By clicking on buttons in the video’s YouTube player, they can change the video’s location, car and song.
According to Christina Yu, executive creative director of Red Urban Canada, the brand’s agency, it was Walk Off The Earth that approached Volkswagen, saying they were big fans of the brand and wanted to collaborate.
“Volkswagen got a call from the band one day,” she said, in a release. “Volkswagen has a legacy of smart approaches to advertising and is also very well-known for their use of music. We thought it was a great idea, so immediately started developing ideas for the video.”
Walk Off The Earth are no strangers to the ad world, having recently been featured in “Canadian Superstar Saver Search,” campaign for ING that saw the band cover Madonna’s “Material Girl.” The band also played Samsung Canada’s Galaxy launch party last winter, and partnered with the audio brand Polk earlier this month on a contest.
Gianni Luminati, the band’s main songwriter, said Walk Off The Earth has long been interested in using auto sounds to make music. “We’re always looking for interesting ways to make music – and music videos – so this was a perfect opportunity for us.”
Initially the brand will promote the video through public relations aimed at both traditional media and bloggers, as well as its social channels. That will be followed by paid media next month on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
