Amarok Social Test Drive
Volkswagen South Africa
Issue 40 | September 2016
Agency
Ogilvy & Mather Cape Town
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officers Pete Case Chris Gotz Executive Creative Directors Nicholas Wittenberg Tseliso Rangaka Creative Directors Prabashan Gopalakrishnan Pather Jacques Massardo Creative Group Head & Art Director Justin Enderstein Creative Group Head & Copywriter Dean Paradise Senior Designers Nicholas Mills Jedd McNeilage Art Directors Emma Paradise Matthew Pulllen Copywriter Kate Desmarais
Production Team
Agency TV Producer Anthea Beylis Agency Digital Producer Robyn De Beer User Experience Specialist Britta Graewe Post Production Deliverance Post Production Hogarth Worldwide
Other Credits
Business Director Vicki Hey Group Account Director Robin Hook Account Director Stuart Randall PR Account Director Jess Webb PR Account Executive Nazneen Ahmed Strategy Lisa McDowell PR Strategists Awie Erasmus Mike Wills Developer Fanus du Toit PR Creative Director Dan Nash
Date
March 2016
Background
VW'S Amarok is a competent off-road utility vehicle and can carry a one-ton payload. But to truly understand what the Amarok is capable of and just how tough it is, potential customers needed to experience the vehicle first-hand.
However, test drives tended to take place in the city, where the Amarok was driven on tarred roads and without a payload – meaning that test drivers didn't experience what the Amarok could really do.
Idea
To give would-be owners the opportunity to get the full Amarok experience, including the Amarok's off-road ability and carrying capacity, ordinary test drives were turned into test drives that matter.
Thus Amarok test drives were used to facilitate the distribution of supplies to some of the many South African communities in hard-to- reach locations.
Simply by walking into a dealership or applying online, test drivers got to drive the Amarok in the conditions it's built for, and do social good.
The test drives were documented as they delivered goods, often urgently needed products such as drinking water, medicines and text books, to remote rural communities. A TV commercial was cut from the footage captured.
To encourage potential test drivers to step forward, videos were promoted in targeted environments. They were then directed to a simple and easy-to-use microsite.
Results
The videos received almost 1.9 million views and the campaign achieved approximately R23.5 million of free exposure and 1,6000 responses.
All told, 4,683 kms of social good test drives were recorded.
Our Thoughts
A bang-on piece of insight lies behind this. Test drives for ordinary saloon cars are almost invariably 'artificial' in that they rarely replicate average driving habits, so that would be doubly true for anyone test driving a utility.
The closer the driver can get to testing the vehicle as for real, the more likely VW will be to the close the sale. But if it can do some good while it's at it, then so much the better.
I imagine this project was also logistically stressful for VW, underlining the depth of its commitment. Dealers would have to organise supply hubs and pick-ups for remote communities, see the Amarok leave the showroom for hours at a time, and fix all the bumps and bruises they might acquire.