Precision Parking: Parks Assist by Volkswagen
Client: Volkswagen
Advertising Agency: DBB
Tribal Berlin
Country: Berlin
Campaign Type: Print Campaign
Chief Creative Officer: Eric
Schoeffler
Creative
Directors/Copywriters: Maged Nassar
Illustrator: The Operators
The
Campaign:
DDB Tribal Berlin Germany launched their first ‘Precision
Parking’ campaign for Volkswagen in 2012. Volkswagen wanted to find a new way
off increasing the sale of the optional equipment that they include with the
new cars they sell. To do this, they began thinking of ideas that would
introduce the new features, as well as get people excited about them. One of
the main new features they chose to promote for their new cars was ‘the park
assist’.
The park assist is a feature where your Volkswagen
car will practically park itself. It gives the option for the driver to park in
tight spots with the touch of a button, and all the driver needs to do is work
the pedals. Then the ultrasonic sensors in the front bumpers will scan the
space to detect whether it’s large enough. This is all done by pressing the new
Parks Assist Button – the feature Volkswagen wished to promote.
Volkswagen decided to approach DBB Tribal Berlin
with the job, and left the campaign in their hands. This is when the chief
creative officer and creative directors/copywriters began discussing the
promotional possibilities, and came up with the idea to promote it via a print
campaign. They thought a brilliant way to promote Volkswagens new parks assist
feature, would be to point out the dangers of tightly parking cars, and thought
up a clever way to go about this and get across the message.
DBB Tribal Berlin thought about metaphorical ways
in which they could symbolised these dangers, and due to their target audience
being 17+ (as Volkswagen are a car company, so would only target an audience who
can legally drive) they knew the message would come across clearly to the
viewers they were targeting. This is why they chose to feature a hedgehog
tightly positioned between three water-filled bags which each contain goldfish
(although the hedgehog is not coming into contact with these bags). The
hedgehog obviously symbolises the potential buyers in their Volkswagen car with
the new feature, parking safely next to the goldfish which represent the other
cars. DBB took a scenario they knew the target audience would be able to understand
to show the risks the audience suffer without Volkswagens new feature.
Due to the print advertisements effective message
and clever content, the campaign has got a lot of praise, such as being shared
on many blogs for being a successful advertisement, and being ranked as the 6th
top print advertisement on Best Ads.
To make people aware of the new feature, and grab a
large audience’s attention, the print advertisement featured on many billboards
in Germanys main cities. It was also featured in press ads in the most sold
magazines.
Annotation
of the Print Advert:
Purpose:
The
purpose of the print is to firstly make people aware of the risks of parking
tightly between cars can bring, and by doing so introducing the new Parks
Assist feature Volkswagen have to offer, and the effects it has on tightly
parking.
Content:
The
print advertisement very successfully draws the viewer’s attention in through
the clever humour and message the content brings. The content suggests
Volkswagen is individual, it does this through representing the Volkswagen car
with the parks assist feature as a hedgehog, whereas the other three cars
parked around it are being portrayed as goldfish – all the same (which emphasizes
Volkswagens individuality) but also not as smart and equipt (goldfish are known
to be unintelligent). The hedgehog also may reflect Volkswagen, as it is sharp,
large, and rich in colour which grabs the viewers attention, which is a way to
suggest Volkswagen are attempting to grab our attention.
The
clear message the content gets across, is that Volkswagens new assist parking
feature is accurate. This is done metaphorically by using a hedgehog which
represents a Volkswagen car, parked tightly in-between three bags of goldfish,
which represent other cars.
They’ve
used a situation everyone can relate too - A hedgehog is used due to the
sharpness of its spikes next to the weak plastic bags, to point out to the
viewers the risks of parking so tightly. In this example they’ve even used exaggeration
effectively by putting animal’s lives in danger to get across their point.
Typography:
The
only text the print features is ‘Precision Parking’ followed by ‘Parks Assist
by Volkswagen’. The small amount of text is effective, as it doesn’t distract
from the main message the image clearly and effectively gets across on its own.
The font used is ‘Copy’ which appears to be a masculine font due to the font
being being thick, bold and there being no serifs in the text.
Composition/Layout:
The
content (being the image of the hedgehog and the three bags of goldfish) are
carefully positioned in a straight line, and each gap between the objects is
very proportional to one another. This is done, to again reflect the accuracy
Volkswagen are trying to suggest their parking feature brings.
Slogan:
The
slogan ‘Precision Parking’ is short, to the point, and rememberable. To make
this slogan stick in the audience’s minds, they have purposely chosen to use minimal
words, and alliteration. Using the word precision might not just be referring to
the accurate parking, but also the accuracy of Volkswagen, and their promise
that the feature really works.
Target
Audience:
The
target audience are clearly people aged 17+, as Volkswagen specialises in cars
and the legal age to drive is 17. This means only people this age or over would
be interested in the product.
Reach,
Relevancy & Frequency:
The
print was featured on many billboards in Germany’s main cities, as well as
press ads in the most sold magazines, but also got a lot of free publicity by
people sharing and talking about the print due to the clever content and
messages it shows.
Sources:
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/volkswagen_park_assist_hedgehog_and_fish
http://advertisingdesign-e.weebly.com/blog/volkswagen-precision-parking
http://www.brandsynario.com/volkswagen-precision-parking
Jay informed me he has no budget, but does most of his advertising via Twitter and Facebook. This was useful to know as this restricts us to producing an online campaign, and we can rule off printable items such as posters, leaflets and business cards.
.jpg)
.jpg)
