Herndon, VA (January 28, 2014) – Volkswagen of America, Inc. today officially kicked off advertising’s premier event with the unveiling of its new Game Day commercial. Viewers can catch “Wings” on the automaker’s YouTube® channel before it airs in the second quarter of the Big Game this Sunday. This is the fifth consecutive year that Volkswagen has advertised on Game Day.
“The Big Game is a unique chance for Volkswagen to entertain tens of millions of people and to show consumers why we have so much pride in the brand,” said Vinay Shahani, Vice President, Marketing at Volkswagen of America, Inc. “We are thrilled with this year’s creative, which highlights the enthusiasm around our brand and our vehicles’ German engineering in a humorous spot that embodies the Volkswagen spirit.”
Volkswagen’s 2014 Game Day commercial “Wings”, developed by ARGONAUT, a San Francisco-based creative agency, centers around VW’s 100,000 mile claim – that the brand has the most vehicles on the road with over 100,000 miles*.
With a legacy of human stories told simply, this year’s spot builds on the brand’s recent Game Day advertising tradition of adding a Volkswagen spin to American pop culture.
The 60-second spot follows up Volkswagen’s teaser “Algorithm,” also created by ARGONAUT. Released on January 21, 2014, the teaser gave viewers a glimpse of what the Big Game spot might have looked like if Volkswagen had handed the creative reins over to the brand’s quirky and enthusiastic German engineers. The teaser pokes fun at Volkswagen’s perfectionist culture while “Wings” celebrates our engineers’ devotion to the design of our vehicles.
As a brand that enjoyed immense success launching its spot early on YouTube with “The Force” in 2011, it is no surprise that Volkswagen is moving into the game itself with a multi-faceted digital and social campaign, concepted and produced by Edelman Digital, Volkswagen’s social Agency of Record.
The iconic German engineers featured in “Wings” will take to social media, attempting to explain the formula to create the most entertaining Game Day experience. The engineers will be featured in a series of funny videos across Volkswagen’s owned social channels. These entertaining segments will debut before the Big Game, as well as during the game itself with live video responses on the gridiron action.
Continuing to play off of the German engineers’ formulaic approach to Big Game fun, Volkswagen will launch a homepage masthead takeover on YouTube beginning February 3rd. Dubbed the “Internet-ifier 5000”, the unique online experience encourages fans to remix Volkswagen’s Game Day commercial with some of the web’s most iconic memes – such as cats and babies – to make the Big Game spot even “Internet-ier.”
Additionally, the spot provides so many comedic bits that Volkswagen has turned several of them into GIFs, which fans will be able to share online. Consumers can follow the fun by visiting: facebook.com/VW or twitter.com/vw.
*Calculation of total vehicles with over 100,000 miles per brand based on Wolfram Alpha (www.wolframalpha.com) average mileage per year data and IHS Automotive: Polk global registrations in 49 countries, as of November 2013.
About Volkswagen of America, Inc.
Founded in 1955, Volkswagen of America, Inc., an operating unit of Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (VWoA) is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia. It is a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, headquartered in Wolfsburg, Germany. VWoA’s operations in the United States include research and development, parts and vehicle processing, parts distribution centers, sales, marketing and service offices, financial service centers, and its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Volkswagen Group is one of the world’s largest producers of passenger cars and Europe’s largest automaker. VWoA sells the Beetle, Beetle Convertible, Eos, Golf, Golf R, GTI, Jetta, Jetta SportWagen, Passat, CC, Tiguan, Touareg, and Routan vehicles through approximately 600 independent U.S. dealers.
About ARGONAUT
ARGONAUT is an advertising agency based in San Francisco, California, founded in March 2013 by industry veteran Jordan Warren and creative team Hunter Hindman and Rick Condos, along with Max Heilbron as head of strategy, Robbie Whiting as head of creative technology and production, and Conal O’Doherty as head of growth. We create breakthrough ideas for courageous brands, by deploying bespoke teams to address each client’s unique challenge.
“With Wings, we are proud to carry on Volkswagen’s tradition of simple, human, storytelling by celebrating their engineers who are so committed to quality,” said Hunter Hindman, Co-Chief Creative Officer, ARGONAUT. “They gave us a powerful claim and we wanted to bring it to life in a fun and memorable way.”
About Edelman Digital
Edelman Digital is the world’s first and largest global social agency with over 800 employees worldwide. We leverage the industry’s best talent, combining insight driven business strategy with flawless program execution. This leads to measurable results for our clients and tangible value for their stakeholders.
“Volkswagen is known as a pioneer within the digital space, having set the standard for excellence through several key milestones – like being the first brand ever to release its Big Game spot early on YouTube,” said Cricket Wardein, US Head of Digital at Edelman. “For this year’s Game Day campaign, we developed an innovative strategy focused on telling Volkswagen’s story through the real-time lens of the engineers. The program is meant to differentiate the brand’s content and entertain consumers in a unique, provocative way, breaking new ground in today’s fragmented, multi-channel media landscape.”
