In an age of DVR, product parity, thinly spread individual media consumption, and perhaps marketing overkill, this statement rings especially true. That's why Crispin Porter and Bogusky is so amazing. Campaign after campaign, they deliver, engaging viewers and building their clients' brands in ways that have profound impacts on sales (see: Burger King, MINI). Well guys, it looks like they've done it again.
The latest and greatest campaign from CP+B is their first work for Volkswagen and features some of the most entertaining commercials I've seen in a long time. After U.S. sales slumped for five consecutive years, Volkswagen picked up their $400 million account and took it from Arnold Worldwide to CP+B without a review. It looks like it was a good idea.
The new TV ads for Volkwagen's just-released GTI performance car made their debut during the Winter Olympus coverage on NBC and have been running constantly throughout the coverage. The campaign theme is "Make Friends With Your Fast," with the "Fast" being the "thing" inside drivers that makes them want to drive...fast, naturally. The thing that makes the campaign ridiculously entertaining is that the "fast" is embodied in a strange little black creature figure that looks like it was the spawn of Darth Vader and some type of rabbit. Various plots have the "fast" riding with the owner of a GTI and start speaking to the driver in an evil voice as if it's their conscience. These humor-inducing situations include being pulled over by a police officer and driving around with a girlfriend.
The quick impact of the campaign has been unmistakable with all of the ad blogs and trades producing stories on it. More importantly, viewers are loving the spots and talking about them with their friends. All four commercials made their way onto a GTI fan site called myfastgti.com before Crispin Porter could even launch a campaign minisite for Volkswagen. But you know you're really creating a buzz when you have people wanting to get their hands on some type of figure of the brand icon you've created. There were several reader comments similar to this one following a BusinessWeek feature on the campaign:
Nickname: Michelle
Review: Where can I get a "My Fast" character? Every time the commercial comes on everybody stops what they are doing to watch it! We have Tivo so my sons have been taping the commercials so they can watch them over and over again. Does the "My Fast" come with the car?
Date reviewed: Feb 19, 2006 3:56 AM
The geniuses at Crispin Porter + Bogusky have created yet another amazing brand icon. But this campaign doesn't only demonstrate the impact of creating an icon that really personifies a brand: it's another lesson that in order to be successful in building a brand, you must find it's true soul.
As a Wisconsin-born and loyal guy, I'm sure glad to see Miller moved it's Lite brand over to CP+B. That's the best call (bad pun intended) they've ever made.
CURRENT LISTENING: Rogue Wave - Postage Stamp World
1 comment:
awesome post. I love to hear your views on current ad campaigns. There's many of them that I see that make me wanna talk to you about them. post about even more if you can. except Burger King, I don't like those because I didn't think they had staying power. They were kinda funny at first, but that's all. You may see differently.
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