To demonstrate the Polo’s safety in a refreshing and relevant way we focused on how it interacts with its surroundings, because the Polo is safe both for those on the inside ànd the outside. One of its technological features is its pedestrian detection which not only recognises pedestrians in front of the car, but also initiates an emergency brake if the driver doesn’t respond in time. By combining this feature with a mounted camera on the car which detects if and when it’s activated, we let the New Polo take photos for its own outdoor advertising.

Three of the ‘life saving’ pictures were used in a national outdoor campaign to support the New Polo’s launch. To reinforce the pictures, we opted for a simple but direct copy:

Headline: “Saved by the New Polo”

Subline: “Comes standard with pedestrian detection”

This campaign highlighted the fact that these were real people and that they Polo’s safety isn’t only for those on the inside, it’s for those on the outside as well. That’s why both our idea and media selection focused on this part of the audience.

The pictures were visible on an outdoor network in city centres – where pedestrian detection is most relevant - which consisted of over 1.100 billboards during the last two weeks of October.

The campaign is still running at the time of entry, so full results aren’t available yet although the general impact of the campaign is already noticeable on a business level. The Polo Safety Shoot was created in order to raise awareness for the new Polo and its safety features. Detailed awareness levels aren’t available yet, but there’s already a clear impact in the number of leads we have generated:

2.800 leads were registered in the finale two weeks of October (when the campaign was running). Compared to 1.600 leads in the same period last year this means an increase of 75%.