2023 Bronze Automotive

Agency: BBH London

Client: Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWCV)

Entry: Electric Sunshine on Blue Monday

Executive Summary

What are we all in desperate need of in the middle of a cold, grey January? On Blue Monday, the saddest day of the year? Sunshine. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles made some and brought it to the heart of London.

Strategy

The campaign was designed to make the all-electric ID.Buzz famous. With its heritage steeped in the sunny Sixties, the van has sunshine in its DNA: a source of positive energy.

Potential buyers were young, affluent, image-conscious families. They over-index in their belief that electric cars are necessary. They care about climate change, but sustainability alone isn’t a big enough purchase driver for them. There is a visible intention-action gap. To dig deeper into this sentiment, we spoke to people from all over the UK. Most people associate sustainability with effort. They believe purchase journeys for ‘greener’ products are full of barriers, making trying to live sustainably feel like a chore. Brand campaigns to push the sustainability agenda rely heavily on guilt-tripping consumers to make changes. People already tend to feel distant from global issues. Guilt-tripping only amplifies the enormity of the problem, reinforcing the psychological distance and making consumers feel helpless rather than empowered to take action. Most consumers are tired of hearing sustainability messages from brands. “It’s bad enough feeling powerless in the face of the climate crisis, without brands incessantly reminding you that the world is burning”. The big challenge for us was to lighten the mood around a serious topic. So, we focused on making choosing the sustainable option engaging, rewarding and fun for our consumers.

Creativity

To promote the ID.Buzz the team transformed a billboard into the world’s biggest SAD lamp, giving passers-by the chance to recharge with a blast of 100% electric sunshine on Blue Monday.

Results

PR coverage spanned 13 articles across marketing, local and automotive publications, racking up around 28,111 views.

Social media outstripped the reach goal by 226%. Post-engagement overshot targets with 1.4 million and 1.5 million impressions on the two posts.

Video content across Meta and LinkedIn: 21.3 million eyes caught the show, with 18.9k clicks at £4 CPC.

The campaign also had a big uptick on VWCV’s electric vehicle awareness. VWCV is now the brand most associated brand with the provision of ECVs.

The Team

BBH - Aparna Bangur, Strategy Director - Stuart Royall, Creative Director - Oliver Short, Creative - Jennifer Ashton, Creative - Adam Crowle, Business Lead - Liam Smith, Account Manager - Annabelle Whipp, Project Manager - Isabella Rubins, Account Executive - Sally Kursa, Head of Art Production - Pippa White, Art Producer - Matt Kitto, Art Producer - Anthony Jones, Designer - Ellen Scholes, Strategist - Edward Bishop, Photographer - Ronan Pollock, Videographer

VWCV UK - Jill Keenan, Communications Manager - Laura Bignall, Brand and Performance Manager

Kate Thompson, Chief Marketing Officer

Contributors

The Glue Society and Biscuit Filmworks