Volkswagen NZ celebrates 60 years with new crowd sourced campaign via Colenso BBDO

| | No Comments

5-1.jpgWhen the first Volkswagen was built, it was built for everyman. It was reliable, economical and affordable. It democratized excellence. The English translation of Volkswagen is ‘The People’s Car’, and that’s exactly what they were.

60 years on – after the first Volkswagen was first produced in Otahuhu, Auckland, Volkswagen NZ has launched a new crowd sourced project via Colenso BBDO reminding kiwis that not that much has changed.

4-1.jpgSays Tom Ruddenklau, GM Volkswagen: “We want to get a bit closer to Kiwis. As a European brand, if you are not careful you can easily be seen as too premium and out of reach. We wanted Kiwis to tell their story of New Zealand, and show that Volkswagen has been a part of it historically and that it’s as relevant today as it was yesterday. The project was a leap of faith that our customers could tell the story, as opposed to creating/crafting it ourselves.”

In partnership with a team of people from Volkswagen NZ, Colenso BBDO and Finch, New Zealand drivers have created a first for the brand, a 60″ film of the people’s car, made by the people.

Over the last 6 weeks, over a thousand pieces of content have been submitted, totalling 16 hours of footage, endless photos and stories all representing real kiwis in their Volkswagens.

The oldest submitter of content is a gentleman who’s in his 80s, one has circumnavigated the globe twice in his Beetle, and the youngest is a 2-year old girl.

The cleverly edited film contains 150 kiwis in the first 10 seconds and covers models from the 50s to today.

Says Scott Coldham, Colenso: “It was refreshing (and at times scary) approaching this in a way that didn’t involve getting a camera out and making a slick car commercial. But for what we set out to achieve with this particular piece, the authentic approach was the only option. We’ve uncovered some crazy stories, great content, and amazing people along the way and this is only the beginning.”

Volkswagen is telling kiwis to upload their stories at volkswagen.co.nz/thepeoplesfilm.