Volkswagen UK Makes An Ad About Making Their Site

UPDATE (02 April 2008): Maybe I was just a little tired last night and not feeling the best. As Crawford reminded me in the comments, it's just meant to be fun and give you a good feeling about VW.

Volkswagen, at least here in the States, has historically been about "the joy of driving" if you will (Drivers Wanted) and this certainly touches upon the fun feeling you can get zipping around in a car you love driving. So, yeah... Maybe I was just in a bad mood and over-thinking it.

As I said near the end of the original post below, it is a well done site and the video is nicely done as well. I am certain a lot of people put a lot of hard work into launching the site. This wasn't meant to put them down in any way. It was a challenge to the business decision made here.

In digging around a little more, this might not be running on TV and just as a "viral" online video. I don't know for certain on that one since I'm not living in the U.K. If this video was made as a reward for all the hard work that went into building the site and then it happened to get put online and it was not meant to advertise the new site to the public, then this entire post is for naught.

Final note... Fun as this may be, the business strategist in me still says any money spent on this would have been better spent getting in front of people actively searching for a new car online.

I know, I know. Sometimes businesses have to have fun too. Especially if they're rewarding their employees and agencies for all the hard work that goes into what they do every day.

I'll quit being a grump now.

-- ORIGINAL POST BELOW--

I might be out on an island here, but does anyone else find it at all peculiar that Volkswagen UK made an ad/video to tell people they have a new web site? Won't anyone who is in the market for a new VW already be going there anyway? Isn't this just driving a bunch of traffic to your new site for the sake of driving traffic to your site? Is this really going to help sell more cars?

I guess maybe we've been putting expensive ads on web sites for some time now, so why not put that you have a new web site in an expensive ad, right? Wait. O.K. I don't know that this was expensive to produce. Still. It wasn't free. Don't you think this money could have been better spent on an online media buy trying to reach people who are actively looking for a new car online?

In addition to that, last I checked, VW sells cars, not web sites. So why are you telling me that you've got a new web site? Why aren't you doing something to get me to come learn about a new car? Why aren't you inviting me to come see how VW is trying to help lower the emissions of their cars? Why aren't you giving me something that makes me care more about VW or feel better about them as a company?

Last I checked, VW doesn't build web sites, their agencies do. Or do the agencies build the cars now too? All you're telling me is that you've spent a bunch of money on a new web site and now you're spending more money to tell me that you did it. What does that do for me?

It's a fun ad and from the little bit that I explored the site, it's well done too, but again... why would you make a TV spot to tell people this? I don't care how hard you worked on building your site. I only care that it works seamlessly and doesn't annoy the piss out of me when I go there with long load times and difficult navigation. And again, wouldn't the money spent on this be better spent against the brand's online media buy?

Am I missing something here? Am I just being a sleep-deprived grump, fighting a cold?

Maybe. I should probably go to bed and see if a good night's sleep makes me see this differently.

found

Comments

[Crawford]

Sleep-deprived perhaps. But my guess is you're just thinking too much, and missing the simple fun demo of it all. Hit the reset button in your brain and view it again. Fresh. See if you don't have a little more fun.

[paul isakson]

Thanks for the reminder that this is supposed to be fun, Crawford. You're right. Was probably all the grouchy comments I was reading on a blog about the new Cadbury Trucks ad that led me to this that caused my mood. I'll hit refresh and see how it looks tomorrow...

[Daan Jansonius]

I'm not alone in thinking the new Cabdury ad is crap, then? Because it IS!

At work at the moment, so can't view the video....but I can see your point. Maybe it was to stimulate a warm, fuzzy feeling among the employees (in particular the ones working on online)?

Is this ad actually aired on tv, or has it been created in hope of going viral?

[Marko Bon]

I'm behind the clicking-the-reset-button notion above -- thankfully ads can slide into the gray area beyond simply selling the product. Personally, I like the subtle winks it gives us regarding the mystery of technology -- rollers under the scrollbar -- reminding the viewers that every decision, no matter how subtle, took a couple of people some effort to bring it to life. Perhaps a more literal version of Coke's Happiness Factory, eh?

[paul isakson]

Thanks for calling me out for just being too nit-picky and over-thinking this, Marko & Crawford.

The Happiness Factory is a good reference. Sometimes brands need to do things just to make us smile. VW has often been good at that. Pink Moon is still one of my favorite ads.

I hope the update at the top set me straight, but if not, well, I'm refreshed and glad they're just trying to entertain me a bit and have some fun.

Note to self... stay away from writing a post when not in the right frame of mind! Ha!

[Dion Hughes]

Paul, funny post. Crankiness is good... it explores the corners. I'd agree though with the dissenting comments above: the spot is amusing enough, it makes a point about the cars, and it drives people towards a deeper engagement with the brand. So a good amount of the traffic will be people who just want to see the new website... but a few of those, even, will find themselves being drawn into the vw experience.
keep writing... love your blog.

[Josh Chambers]

I really enjoyed the ad. I agree with the question of where they're spending their money. But overall, it makes me want to check their site out, and I think the ad is fun enough to represent the innovation they're hoping to convey.

[Todd W.]

I can see how you initially were struck that it was self-congratulatory grandstanding by the agency. Certainly TribalDDB has been machinegunning out press releases about the new site. But when I first stumbled on this, I was thrilled. This was a literal expression of what I've been thinking for a long time now, that the Web experience IS one of the company's products, not only in the visual and textual aspects of expressing a brand, but in function and value as well. The nature of the Web allows the site to function across a range of purposes, not just communications. The tools provided by this site, as well as others, should be intended to ease the buying experience and solve common consumer problems in the process. This little clips was trying to make that point.