Volkswagen cars are specifically adjusted for the Swedish winter. For their 2019 winter campaign, they wanted to highlight their new, four-wheel drive Passat Alltrack. The brief was to talk about the car and its winter adjusted features in an engaging way that stands out from other car brands, while also activating Volkswagen’s sponsorship of the Swedish National cross-country Ski Team. The SkiTeam members are superstars in their own right – the Ronaldos and LeBrons of Sweden.

Volkswagen cars are specifically adjusted for the Swedish winter. For their 2019 winter campaign, they wanted to highlight their new, four-wheel drive Passat Alltrack. The brief was to talk about the car and its winter adjusted features in an engaging way that stands out from other car brands, while also activating Volkswagen’s sponsorship of the Swedish National cross-country Ski Team. The SkiTeam members are superstars in their own right – the Ronaldos and LeBrons of Sweden.

To show how winter-adjusted the Passat Alltrack really is, we placed it in its natural habitat by launching the world’s most remote showroom – The No Show…Room. It’s hard to get to, but easy to drive away from – in a four-wheel drive Volkswagen Passat Alltrack. To activate the campaign, we announced that the first person to find the showroom, wins the car.

By building an activation around the car’s unique selling point, and turning it into a competition, we engaged tens of thousands of people online in a two-week long hunt for clues in Volkswagen's channels. And as a result, people got to know everything about the car, its features and Volkswagen’s winter adjusted car models.

We used all touchpoints in the winter campaign to activate the competition in order to help people find the car. We hid clues everywhere - Instagram, print ads, digital out of home, TVCs and newsletter to name a few. We even hijacked and planted a clue in the global tour de Ski broadcast.

Instead of following the 'classic car ad formula', we launched the showroom via a TVC trailer for the competition, made by the guy who shot the latest James Bond movie, and starring the Swedish national SkiTeam – a group with a huge advantage in challenging terrains. Then we announced that the first person to show up, gets the car. To help people find it, we shared clues online and offline. The clue led to codes that unlocked the coordinates to the showroom.

In order to create the most conversation, the campaign was social-first. The activation centered around a campaign site and Volkswagen’s Instagram, but we hijacked their entire winter campaign and planted codes in all touchpoints – including Volkswagen’s website, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, newsletter, TVCs, print ads, digital out of home ads and Google ads. We also planted codes in SkiTeam’s social channels and a global Tour de Ski broadcast.

· #1 most-sold car brand in Sweden during campaign period

· +60% price quotes & test drives at dealerships

· +60.1% followers on Instagram

· #1 most talked about car brand online

· +669% traffic to website / four-wheel drive car models

· +22% uplift in Passat Alltrack sales during campaign period