Episode 56 - Volkswagen Ad Reviewed by JCDecaux, Reckitt and GSK
On this week’s episode we talk about the new Volkswagen Golf ad, featuring QR codes and video games.
The ad is playful, engaging and fast-paced… as the car itself. But does it target the right end buyer? And how well does the game play aspect work in practice? What does it do well and where does it fall flat?
Join us and our guests Kelly Richards (Lead Business Growth Manager, JCDecaux), Sumati Nagrath (Content Strategist and Consumer Experience Manager, Reckitt) and Jerry Daykin (EMEA Senior Media Director, GSK), to see what they liked and what they didn’t.
Transcription
The following is an automated transcript of the file, which is not 100% accurate but will give you a good idea of what was discussed.
Tom Ollerton 0:09
Hello, and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative, and this is a weekly show where brands watch other brands' ads and discuss what's good and bad about them. We are brought to you this week by Contagious who have helped choose the ad, in fact chosen the ad this week. And we will look at that in a minute. But before we do that, let's meet this week's guests.
Kelly Richards 0:35
My name is Kelly Richards. I work for JCDecaux as Lead Business Growth Manager.
Sumati Nagrath 0:40
Hi, my name is Sumati Nagrath, and I am a Content Strategist and Consumer Experience Strategist at Reckitt.
Jerry Daykin 0:47
And my name is Jerry Daykin. I'm the EMEA and sometimes now latter, I'm Media Director at GSK Consumer Healthcare.
Tom Ollerton 0:50
And special shout out to Sumati who is dialing in from Singapore, we are very much cutting into her evening, but thanks very much for that. Right. Let's see this week's ads.
Right, Jerry... As a consumer, what did you think first time you saw that?
Jerry Daykin 2:06
I quite like, I like this doing something disruptive, especially in a category where like cars car be very samey, quite forgettable. So it is kind of, it different. But I am always slightly cautious with these kind of things that although some people will go down the rabbit hole and play the game and do that the majority of people are just going to see that ad. And if the ad is just a QR code on the screen, then I don't know quite what the consumer will take away. But no, I like that they're trying something a bit different.
Kelly Richards 2:32
The only thing that I didn't really understand is it seemed to be sort of targeting a relatively younger audience. Would I be interested in playing a video game during the 30? You know, 3-second ad break? You know, I'm just wondering how that translates to the target audience. That's all, but it but but it was very engaging. And like I say, I love the fact that they seem to push and put, put women in the ad as well, which is, which is good.
Sumati Nagrath 3:00
To be honest, I would have, if I was just watching it as a consumer on a television, I would have switched off, like the colors are really bold. The music was, you know, it just I'm on the other side of what the it carry. So for me like, it was like, I'm certainly not the target audience of this ad. But when I started watching it, with the marketers hat on, I have to say I really enjoyed the ad, I started looking at the different layers.
Tom Ollerton 3:21
There's two things that work really well here. So the QR code, you know, until recently was just a bit of a, an industry joke. Now it seems to be much more commonplace, certainly in the UK. Jerry, do you think that the brands are being brave pioneers here? Or do you think they've got distracted by a shiny new object?
Jerry Daykin 3:41
QR codes have always been this like, wonderful thing for marketers, yay, we can take people to our marketing and sell them more stuff. But consumers always been like, you know, "What the hell's the QR code? Why would I? Why would I do that?" And I think with a weird side effect of COVID setting in the UK, but I think in many countries that you've had to start scanning more QR codes to check in places, to look at menus. And we kind of all know what they are now. I think in some parts of Asia, like China, in particular them, they're massive. They've been huge for years. But now more broadly, they are and I think therefore they've kind of waited to a good time when the tech is ready, and people are ready. And I think they'll you know, they'll get a much bigger uptake than we did a decade ago.
Kelly Richards 4:17
I was surprised that they would use a QR code on a TV ad. That's what surprised me. Because I'm seeing, I'm sort of imagining myself in my lounge, or I'm sat at the moment sort of going up to my telly, you know, putting it up. So I am surprised because you would assume with a TV ad, you'd be able to be more explicit with instructions of how to do things and whatever. So that surprised me. And I'd be interested to know how well that worked. So yes, there seems to be working a lot more now. And I am really interested to find out how much people, how many people actually click through on that QR code on this telly, because I've never seen, you know, I've never seen the whole QR code on the telly before.
Tom Ollerton 4:58
So Sumati, do you think that the brand benefit and the excitement and the tech and the innovation would give us good a return on just running some basic ads on Facebook? So why don't you book a test drive with this new car? Or do you think that they've done the right thing by pushing it?
Sumati Nagrath 5:18
There were two or three things that are happening. So for me, like, one, I would never have thought of Volkswagen as a gaming, in a gaming environment, right. So the first thing was that, I would always think of it as a family car. But suddenly, in this ad, they're doing that as well, that they're bringing, I think, a new direction, or, you know, a new identity to that particular model of the car. But I also, if you look at it in the context of the lockdown stuff, right, in Melbourne and Sydney right now. Often on, they're having extreme lockdown. So test drives and stuff are not also as possible to have. So, to come into a showroom to interact with that actual model, it's, it's not the ground reality at the moment. So I think that in taking all of that into account, this probably is a very interesting, innovative model that they're trying out.
Jerry Daykin 6:04
There's something really interesting about that. I think both Sumati and Kelly touched on the target audience and there's that kind of fall, I do, I often think some campaigns are this sort of work more by accident than by design, because I think... You kind of think the people who are actually going to play this game, actually download it, certainly people who are going to try really hard to win it, are going to be probably a little bit younger, and probably more, you know, there's just certain people who love entering competitions, and will spend hours and hours doing that. I think quite a lot people who actually buy this car. I mean, it is kind of an aspirational car for for younger people. But it's not, it's not cheap. And I think a lot of people who buy it won't actually play the game or interact with it. But they will kind of like the fact that that's happening. They like the fact that it's a brand that's doing something a bit different, that standing out a bit, they'll hear about it, they'll think about it.
Sumati Nagrath 6:48
From a digital point of view, Jerry, I just think that when I went in to play the game, there was no registration, there was no profiling, there was no... So, in a sense, it's actually working as a typical brand reach campaign, like you will see so many people reached. But it's certainly not getting into the detail metrics that you would want to if you want to retarget them, or you want to send them an email basis, that age profile, you know, income profile and saying, Do you want to..." So, there is absolutely no collection of any kind of active collection of data that's happening at that point in time as well.
Tom Ollerton 7:20
So Kelly, what do you think would have made this execution better?
Kelly Richards 7:24
I do think the execution was good. I just felt that there is a slight disconnect, between who the TV ads seem to be targeting and who would be actually interested in buying the car. I think what Sumati touched on regarding the lack of data capture probably alludes to the fact that the game is and sort of nice to have. You know, one, I would, I would question, what's the point? If most of the people interacting with the game might not be able to afford the product, and you're not really sort of capturing that data to at least reach, retarget them, there is still the opportunity in the tech in, you know, to be able to show people the key features of the car and at least educate the consumer on what the you know, what the benefits of the new model is. You know, if you've got people who have made the, you know, made the effort to kind of go on to the game and explore, explore the brand and explore, you know, these key features. You know, how do you then next, you know, how do you then keep them engaged past the game and keep them, keep them engaged in the brand so that they then come through? And whether whether they book a test drive, or at least inquire about the product like that... I think that's, a that's an opportunity there, really.
Tom Ollerton 8:39
Should brands be ditching data capture in return for a great top of funnel experience?
Sumati Nagrath 8:45
I don't think it's mutually exclusive, Tom. I think if you're giving such a brilliant experience, and you have a follow up to that saying, "For an additional value add or an additional value proposition, here is something else. But for that, I need, I need your data." But if they had said something like, you know, "Before you set off, or after you finish your practice course and stuff, would you like to sign up for a test drive?" It's just asking that one additional question at the end. And if they say yes, you're still giving that optionality. You know, what, what's your location? Or anything. You can just ask another profiling question. It doesn't even have to be an email yet. It could just be a location, or anything, I don't know. But I would definitely add another layer to that.
Tom Ollerton 9:26
So unfortunately, we are at the end of the recording. So on a count of three, I'm gonna ask you to give this ad a mark out of five, using your fingers. So, one, two, three... Well, that's, that's a, that is a high scoring ad for Advertisers Watching Ads. Sumati, Kelly, Jerry, thank you so much.
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