Volkswagen has made its first leap into branded content, putting the entire marketing budget for the launch of the new Golf R performance vehicle behind two short films.
The car maker will not be investing in any above-the-line advertising for the launch, instead investing in the content in a bid to target to high-income fans of performance cars.
The campaign, devised by VW’s media agency MediaCom, features two Top Gear competition winners visiting a motor racing circuit in Sydney where they are shown how to drive a high-speed performance car by professional drivers.
The campaign, dubbed “The Ultimate Test Drive”, marks the first campaign from MediaCom Beyond Advertising (MBA), the agency’s branded entertainment division, which launched in March.
The Golf R campaign will run across the Ninemsn motoring hub for one month from 28 August and sit permanently on the VW YouTube channel.
“The brief was to target an audience of consumers interested in performance cars, rather than those hard-core track-racing enthusiasts,” Volkswagen CRM and events manager Joanne Scalon said.
“The money allocated to this campaign could easily have been spent in traditional advertising, but we really wanted to push the content as the communications.”
MBA head Gemma Newland said: “The R series is such an enthusiast type of car. These people like to be touched in different ways. A lot of enthusiasts
don’t actually buy, but they generate conversation around things.
“A good experience they have might lead to others purchasing the car because the Golf R is really the sort of car you talk to people about.”
Newland said MediaCom clients such as Dell Alienware, Carnival, Foster’s and Vaalia have also invested in branded content projects.
Prue Corlette
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