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Volkswagen Canada’s dealer network is just looking for attention.
To support its annual Volksfest sales initiative, the Volkswagen dealer association has rolled out a national campaign developed by Montreal agency Palm + Havas. The English and French-language campaign, which broke last week and runs through mid-June, consists of TV, online, print, radio and point-of-sale materials.
Three 30-second English and French TV spots feature kids resorting to familiar tactics – throwing a temper tantrum and holding their breath – in order to get what they want. The spots then abruptly cut to an adult beginning to employ the same tactic in order to get a Volkswagen at a reasonable price.
“We’re showing that none of these childish things are necessary to get the price you want on a Volkswagen,” said Marc Gagnier, vice-president of strategy and integration at Palm + Havas.
Each spot ends with the tag “Now it’s easy to get what you want.” Radio ads also employ kids as a mnemonic device.
Because spring is a key sales period for automakers, Gagnier said Palm + Havas needed to develop a creative approach that would set Volkswagen apart from the flood of auto advertising currently in market.
“It’s an extremely crowded category and as you’ve seen by many dealership campaigns [the ads are] usually very straightforward: get this car for so much a month. Because all of these ads look the same, proven brand recall is probably very low, so our idea was to have a little story to break out of the pack and get noticed,” said Gagnier.
Volkswagen’s core demo is adults 25-54 and tends to over-index slightly on factors such as household income and education level, said Gagnier. The TV buy relies heavily on specialty channels, although the spots are also appearing during NHL playoff broadcasts.
Media for the campaign was handled by MediaCom.
