DDB Sydney

Client: Volkswagen Group Australia
Product: Volkswagen Small SUV Range
Title: World's Smallest Dealership
Media: Activation / Outdoor / AR
Country: Australia
Date Of Campaign: November 2020

Background: The brief from Volkswagen was to launch their two new small SUVs, the T-Roc and T-Cross, in market in Australia, create a buzz around them, and eventually have people test-drive and purchase the vehicle. Unfortunately, 2020 had a plan of its own, and only weeks after the small SUV launch, the COVID pandemic had shuttered Volkswagen's dealerships nationwide, meaning people couldn’t check out these new small cars, nor could they test drive or buy them. We needed to create fame around the launch of these cars while also inventing a completely new way for people to experience and purchase them.

Idea: World's Smallest DealershipThe idea was to create the World's Smallest Dealership, an exact miniature replica of a Volkswagen dealership and a completely new kind of brand activation. The idea was that, thanks to its AR integration and online purchase ability, we could tour this dealership around public spaces where people could interact, explore, and virtually kick the tires of the new small SUVs, without impact of COVID restrictions. The idea was that we'd also generate PR in doing so, making our small SUVs famous in market.

Results: Our little dealership was a big success, leading to Volkswagen utilising it across their range, and it being benchmarked by Volkswagen globally. The campaign generated a large spike in traffic to Volkswagen’s website and thousands of interactions with the AR technology. It also sold cars. 460 of them in fact, totalling more than $36 million for Volkswagen. It also got people experiencing a test drive in new ways with 8,056 T-Roc AR interactions, 7,757 T-Cross AR interactions and 20,632 unique page views. We got people talking about a brand-new way to ‘try on’ and buy a car with 210 pieces of earned media coverage in Australia and internationally with 130m+ potential reach. 98% of coverage mentioned the AR and ‘trying on’ a Volkswagen. 50% included a link to the activation and 86% included spokesperson quotes and at least three key messages.