Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase





2014 | |

Two Icons Meet, Become A Powerful Collective

Advertiser: Volkswagen Group Malaysia
Brand: Volkswagen
Creative Agency: M&C Saatchi
Credits: MediaCom Malaysia — Siew Eng, Liew (Business Director), Jasmin Hoy (Senior Communication Manager), Sean Sen (Planner), Katherine Lee (Implementation Manager), Carmen Ooi (Implementation Executive), Aeris Tan (Implementation Executive)

The Challenge
Volkswagen, with its expanding portfolio, wants to expand their customer base and acquiring new ones. PMEB’S, the group with the highest Japanese car ownership, perceive them as innovative, reliable and value for money. Our challenge: Strengthen the appeal of VW among PMEBs.

The Solution – Insight & Idea
PMEBs, as we have discovered are a highly driven demographic – ambitious, progressive in thinking and always seeking knowledge to better themselves*. Whilst a few have taken off in success, many still linger behind as opportunity has yet to manifest for them. Hence, they admire and take from idols who have made it; always on the lookout for stories and lessons that they can take away as and when it is time for them to craft their own journey to success. We understood the opportunity was to latch on to a piece of content that showcased like-minded PMEBs’ journey to success. Building on this further, we also needed the content piece to feature an idol closer to home – someone who is not only successful, but had his own VW story to tell. Introducing Apprentice Asia – shot in the city of Kuala Lumpur, featuring Tony Fernandez. The message we needed to convey was clear – position VW as the vehicle brand of choice for the business world, alluding to success pegs, whilst dialing up each vehicle’s specific strengths. *3D Premium 2013

The Execution
We executed this with 4 most relevant models:

  1. Sharan: Executive mobility; highly spacious with scenes from within the vehicle
  2. Passat: Executive premium sedan, projecting absolute advanced comfort the official car driven by Tony Fernandes’ two trusted advisors Mark Lancaster & Kathleen Tan in the show.
  3. Touareg: engineered to excel inside and out: the executive 4-wheel drive where Tony Fernandes is chauffeured in multiple episodes.
  4. The Beetle: iconic. The subject of the challenge: contestants were tasked to produce a LIVE TV commercial to accurately portray the image of the iconic Beetle. In this episode, Tony Fernandes related his experience with VW as his “First ever brand of vehicle driven – which was a Polo” Our presence was extended on ground through: i. The Apprentice Asia launch Party (VIP Hospitality passes) ii. Press Conference with Tony Fernandes And the execution was amplified on the digital space via i. Streaming of Volkswagen’s TVC ii. Cross linking from Volkswagen Malaysia website iii. Volkswagen banner ads & logo

The Results
The Sponsorship appealed to the PMEBs at large, garnering a total of 1.5million loyal PMEBs viewers throughout the entire season. Web search interest grew by 173% (in June) for “Passat”. Search for “Volkswagen Beetle” increased a whopping 217% in web search interest since the 1st episode of the Apprentice Asia went on air! Furthermore, on the week of the Beetle Case study episode (Jul 7-13, 2013), image search for “Volkswagen Beetle” shot up by 185%!