MINIUSA’s previous ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky is featured in the cover story of the May 22 issue of BusinessWeek.  The article focuses mainly on Crispin’s recent work for Volkswagen of America, but their work for MINIUSA is also touched on.ÂÂÂ
BusinessWeek :: The Craziest Ad Guys In America
The following are brief excerpts from the BusinessWeek article. The full article is worth the click above if you have the time to spare on a Friday.
In launching the GTI and reviving the Volkswagen brand in general, Crispin faced two challenges. First, since the debut of the New Beetle, the VW brand has become feminized, says Keller. Loyal young males who were hanging on to VW by a thread needed to be reassured. Too many men had come to view VW as a “chick’s brand.” Worse, women were turning away from VW because of quality issues. Second, VW loyalists had become baffled about the pricey Phaeton and Touareg and loaded Jettas with price tags topping $30,000. A decade into the popularity of small SUVs priced under $25,000, VW has none. “Affordable German engineering is a huge part of VW’s DNA, and these decisions really confused customers,” says Tom Birk, Crispin vice-president for research and planning.
Crispin’s employee handbook says advertising is “anything that makes our clients famous.”
Crispin may offer a new slogan sometime in 2007. For now, it’s giving each model its own campaign. It just re-launched the Jetta with ads that are far from funky or sexy. In an about-face from its usual humorous tack, Crispin spotlights the car’s top side-impact safety ratings. And like almost everything else the agency does, even these sober-as-a-judge ads have stirred conversation. In one, two couples are chatting as they drive away from a movie house. The driver is distracted and gets creamed by an SUV in real time. The effect on the TV viewer is jolting. The ad moves from the crash to the people standing by, shaky but unharmed, looking at the crushed car. A survivor says, “Holy…,” and the ad cuts to a video frame that says “Safe Happens.” Requests for Jetta brochures went up 30% after the ads’ debut. And dozens of newspapers and NBC’s The Today Show have reported on their jarring quality. “When [Today Show host] Matt Lauer talks for seven minutes about our ads, I know it’s right,” says Santa Monica (Calif.) VW dealer Mike Sullivan. GTI sales are at 20-year highs, and VW sales overall are up 20% this year since Crispin’s ads began.
I love the VW ads with the crazy German engineer and his wacky assitant where they “unpimp the auto”.
The other great feature VW has is the website where you can spec a new GTI and then take a test ride with the crazy german woman from the ads as your sassy/dominatrix co-pilot. I have to say the configurator works better than MINIs. It is really cool and once you build your car you can go for a ride.
It is almost, almost fun enough to make me consider buying one, persih the thought.
<a href="http://www.vwfeatures.com" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.vwfeatures.com</a>
I don’t like the “fast” ads particularly, but their other VW ads are well done. I’ve seen that configurator in action, and it’s a hoot, but it owes its existence to the MINI one, for sure; in addition, it’s more interested in selling you a fancy radio than performance and trim options. MINI also doesn’t require your name and address, the better to pester you with, I would guess. CPB does pretty good in car ads, but some of their other client’s ads are creepy and off-putting for me. DDB was so clean and direct, I loved those old VW ads.
BCNU,
Rob in Dago
I agree, the “fast” ads are creepy and rather mean. I’m not sure who the little fast creature is appealing to? The accident ads are pretty good. I think it is provocative to show the crashed car at the end as the hero shot.
VW charges a lot more for options and is much more restrictive. You can’t get the leather interior without the sunroof and dual climate control system. You can’t get the cloth seat with the dual climate control or satelite radio. Those Germans, so ridgid.
I’m on the fence with CPB’s “My Fast” ads but I wouldn’t consider them creepy. I think their Burger King ads with the big plastic “King” are creepy!
Hmmm…I must be one of the only ones that thought the Fast ads were great. I’m no twentysomething raised in a no-courtesy atmosphere, probably a little older than the target audience, but I really like the advertising.
They said…”a swipe at the over-accessorized, high-performance small Japanese cars often dubbed “rice rockets”
I have never heard Japanese cars called “Rice Rockets” only the bikes. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I have heard the term “Ricer” attached to Japanese cars.
I think the ads are brilliant but I can see some sensitivity there for the feeble minded sensitive types. The Fast stuff is OK.
Auf Wiedersehen, Sucka!
VW needs KICK ASS PRODUCT instead of overdone ads to move mediocre metal (Excluding the current GTI).
CPB is not going to save VW’s butt unless they address the real weaknesses in terms of product, quality and dealer network customer service.
Oh and I think reviving the “Rabbit” nameplate is the dumbest move VW has made after the now extinct Phaeton sedan.
I think that the unpimp the auto ads may alienate the target audience. It is interesting that that niche hipness that everyone is clamoring for is being ridiculed by the advetisers.
I think that of all the advertising that they have done so far, it appears that they are trying to be clever and not so much showing off the product because there really isn’t much to say about the product period.
PS, I sent my buddy over at NORAAD(NORth America Air Defense) the Viral GP email and as he puts it, it has caught on like wild fire. Now that is good advertising.
<blockquote>Oh and I think reviving the “Rabbit†nameplate is the dumbest move VW has made after the now extinct Phaeton sedan.</blockquote>
What’s the downside? The Golf (I’m not lumping the GTI in ) hasn’t been a good seller for VW. The Jetta and the Passat are the mainstays for the VW product line. If VW can generate a bit of free press over the Rabbit name and the $14,990 base price, all the better for them.
Found this in the comments section of the article:
<blockquote>Nickname: half-full
Review: For VW’s sake this is all fine and dandy today, but we will know when and if it sells cars. Having owned many VW’s in the past the thing I have come to love about the brand is that it’s like a humble friend. Not a show-off. This Alex guy and his agency have never built brands, just done stunts that get attention. Brands built on stunts only last for so long before they begin to blend in, which is probably why Miss Martin and her agency bolted from Mini. That is also why they won’t last long at VW. Hopefully for the VW Brand this blip in character will quickly wear itself out and it to will blend in to a much larger picture.
Date reviewed: May 12, 2006 7:30 PM </blockquote>
Boy, This guy doesn’t have a clue does he? His name says it all. MINI is far from blending in. Far!
I’d say his nickname says it all.
“it’s like a humble friend” What, like Tattoo. Hey Boss the VW, the VW?
There is a good BW podcast interview with the writer available to go with this article
Just caught the Burger King commercial with a bunch of guys (?) marching in support of a man’s right to eat a hambuger, set to a macho-ized version of that Helen Reddy song, “I Am Woman!” Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? – over! Bet they were on the way to Rx for Viagra. Is this CPB ad? Full of overcompensating SUVs and rah-rah for “manly” excess, my take away is it lampoons the very people who would buy the product. I don’t see that as selling point. I wasn’t laughing with them, believe me – I would’ve laughed at ’em, if it was funny enough.
BCNU
Rob in Dago
>Oh and I think reviving the “Rabbit†nameplate is the dumbest move VW has made after the now extinct Phaeton sedan.
Yeah I’m with Dave on this. Maybe I’m too young to remember issues with the old Rabbit but it seems like a cool old name that has some VW history. It’s certainly a better name than “Golf”.