Page 21 - Internationalist Magazine 2013 66

DIGITAL SOLUTIONS GRAND PRIX

VW, The Beetle Shark Cage, MediaCom

(Multi-Local)

Over the decades, the Volkswagen Beetle had evolved
into a car preferred by women. Its cute design and lower

holder had convinced men that it was too girly – and all
the purchase data and conversation around it agreed. This

was a problem for Volkswagen. Why? Because while you
might be able to sell a guy’s car to girls, you can’t sell a girl’s

car to guys. On its quest for unprecedented brand growth,
Volkswagen needed men to love the Beetle.

Dove/Unilever, Real Beauty Sketches: PHD
International, Ogilvy Brazil & Unilever Global
VW used media to put Beetle in a place every guy wishes
Strategy Unit (Global)
they could be (maybe once): swimming with sharks.

Dove is committed to creating a world where beauty is
The Discovery Channel’s cultural phenomenon “Shark
a source of conidence, not anxiety, and in response has Week” was the perfect platform – a spectacle of teeth,

conducted a compelling social experiment to illustrate how blood and guts, it delivers male viewers in big numbers.
this problem manifests. But how could they explore this? In partnership with Discovery, Volkswagen engineers

Documented in the short ilm titled Real Beauty Sketches, and shark photographers, VW created a fully-operational
Dove explored how women view their own beauty in underwater Beetle – the cool, totally manly “Shark

contrast to what others see. What they found was that the Observation Cage.” This wasn’t just a cage, but a perfect
way women depict themselves is dramatically different from replica of the iconic car. The submersible vehicle was

how others perceive them. Only 4% of women around the equipped with a full air system and turbo packs to drive

world consider themselves beautiful. A strategy was born underwater, while the frame and design were unmistakably
centered around the most powerful medium on earth — Beetle, down to the last detail.But turning the Beetle

women themselves.
into a shark observation cage? This wasn’t just branded
content – it was an innovative idea that was authentic to the

Dove set out to lip this model on its head by driving trafic brand and the audience, while itting in seamlessly with
and views as quickly as possible, optimizing globally, taking the Shark Week context. And on the international stage,

advantage of the behavioral economics insight of social people agreed. The Beetle Shark Cage competed with other
proof. This strategy needed to work globally, and reach global campaigns and was recognized with honors at both

women in the top 20 priority markets for Dove. Activity was the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity and the Festival
launched by partnering with Unruly to create momentum
of Media. The campaign was also shortlisted for “Best
in select markets. A global partnership with YouTube Local Execution” for the M&M Global Awards 2013. In

enabled activity to be bought analyzed and optimized fact, Volkswagen was back on Shark Week for 2013 – and
centrally across 18 markets, with activity being optimized debuted their shark cage as a fast-moving convertible.

by a core team working out of the Dove HQ Command
Center. This was supported by Facebook, Twitter, local In their inaugural campaign, Volkswagen saw an

market activity and a global PR strategy. The team worked immediate impact: Beetle monthly sales topped 3,000 units
hand in hand with local markets to ensure efforts were
in August – the highest total of the year! It was all about

not being duplicated, and that all media, both globally and the guys – with the percentage of male buyers jumping
locally worked in unison to deliver the optimal results for
to 40% – a lift of 20%. Brand recall, likeability and brand
the campaign.
opinion scores all SHOT past competitive benchmarks.

Average digital engagement on the Shark Week site was
Globally the content has racked up over 156,469,849 views an incredible 28.5 minutes, with ive million views overall.

across all video platforms. It is the 3rd most shared piece The VW playlist had 350,000 views with a way-above-
of branded content ever on the Unruly Viral video chart, average 65% completion

with more than 3.9 million shares. In fact, the video was so rate, and
popular that 1 in 10 Facebook users globally had the video Volkswagen

appear in their newsfeed. The Mashable article reporting saw over
the content is the most shared Mashable article of all time, 1.8 million

being shared over 680,000 times. In addition the content Facebook posts
tapped so deeply into the consciousness of culture that
generated about
the content spawned over 20 parody videos and countless the Beetle Shark

responses. Dove’s Facebook page added more than 611,000 Cage! In only
fans during the campaign period. But most importantly, one world can a

the campaign made real beauty a global topic of discussion beetle take on a
again.
shark.and win!

www.internationalistmagazine.com 19