Golf GTI MK5 launch
Challenge
Volkswagen UK intended to sell the new GTI MK5, six months before the car would be available. With a pre-release budget of less than 10% of the total budget and a target of selling 50% of the annual volume in this period, our challenge was to reinvent how new cars are released and advertised.
For most new car buyers the decision-making process usually takes three to six months. Typically, choices narrow from a broad ‘passive’ awareness of brands to the ‘active’ intention to buy from a shortlist of models. Tracking research showed Volkswagen UK’s website users valued research into new cars’ details. The communications opportunity was to creatively reinvent how research can influence the desire to buy cars and help people buy them.
Solution
The overall strategy was to pre-empt Golf GTI’s competitors by reaching the core GTI audience first through online. The idea was to encourage hot hatch lovers to commit to buying a Golf GTI and pre-pay for the car months before launch, thus short-circuiting the 3 - 6 month decision process. This radical strategy was something Volkswagen had never done before anywhere in the world.
The creative idea was to let people build a dream Golf GTI MK5 on a website, a process known as ‘online configuration’. Unlike normal configurators, the GTI website would be a brand experience that made people fall further in love with the GTI instead of simply providing the price, like most car configurators.
Impact
During pre-release period over 179,000 people built virtual Golf GTIs online and 19,300 people saved their configured cars, creating a valuable database of enthusiasts used for the database e-mails.
- 1.2m visits to the website (www.newgolfgti.co.uk)
- Over 1,700 serious prospects saved full personal details and pre-ordered a GTI online.
- 3,100 Golf GTIs pre-sold six months after the Golf GTI website launched
- Average value of Golf GTIs pre-sold via website was £1,000 higher
- Directly generated £4m of extra revenue (£20m indirectly)
- IPA Effectiveness Award ‘Best Digital’
