DDB Sydney uses heart-stopping viral video to promote the safety-packed Volkswagen Polo

CB Exclusive – Recently, over 33 million people watched a heart-stopping video, starring a runaway tyre tube narrowly missing a car that brakes just in time. Since then, Volkswagen has revealed that the viral video was actually a cheeky ad promoting the safety-packed Volkswagen Polo.

Says Rowena Kanna, marketing communications manager, Volkswagen Australia: “The new Polo is teeming with intuitive safety technology. The challenge we had is that safety technology isn’t a key driver for our younger Polo audience. We challenged DDB to find a way of making safety technology relevant to this demographic.”

The idea was simple: tap into fail videos, a popular social media genre, and remove the fail in the same way the Polo’s safety technology does. In collaboration with Riot Content, the DDB team created a series of UNfail videos, utilising a viral seeding strategy that saw the first film get more than 33 million views worldwide. These views were followed up by targeting this audience with a cheeky reveal.

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Says Vincent Osmond, creative partner, DDB Sydney: “There are many brands talking about safety technology right now. We focused on why young buyers should care about it, and how that tech can have a meaningful impact in their lives.

There’s an entire series of unfail videos that will be infiltrating social feeds. It’s all part of the “More Polo. Less Drama.” campaign for the Volkswagen Polo, launched earlier this year.

Adds Kanna: “Each unfail video has an unexpected plot twist that showcases how the Polo could help you out of everyday dramas. Because, ultimately, that’s all we’re trying to do; remove the drama from your drive.”

Ben Welsh: Chief Creative Officer, DDB Sydney

Alex Newman: Senior Art Director, DDB Sydney