How we helped Volkswagen Middle East connect with their High Expectation Customer (HXC) without showing a single VW car.

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400K + ENGAGED VIEWERS
INFLUENCER MARKETING INNOVATION
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^{Business Challenge}

‍^‍As a brand committed towards moving people forward, beyond the standard slew of content aimed towards lead-generation, Volkswagen wanted to use their platform to stand for more than their cars. They wanted to honour the stories of the region and champion the people of the community. But a lot of brands share this goal. So the real challenge was - how to do it authentically?

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Consumer challenge & Resulting Need state

Social media content, especially from automotive brands often glorifies a fallacy of success devoid of challenges. The audience craves content that challenges this highlights-only, highly filtered depiction with authenticity.

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snac pack
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1.  CONTENT STORY SUPERVISION
2. SERIES EDITOR
3. SOUND DESIGN
4. MUSIC SUPERVISION
5. AUDIO MIX
6. PRE-BUZZ SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT</sup>  

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^{The Result}

In synergy with VW’s social media marketing partners, we created ‘The Journey’ digital series which aimed to combat the unrelatable and often inauthentic portrayal of ‘success stories’ online by revealing ‘the truth behind the road to greatness.’ Through a series of candid, open-artery interviews, ‘The Journey’ offers an unfiltered and behind-the-veil look into the lives of Entrepreneur & Author Paul Evan & Dubai Scholars School Founder Aparna Verma on their tumultuous road to success.

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Key Content Strategy Insights:

With the goal of building more regional trust equity for a legacy brand like Volkswagen, we leaned in heavily on their commitment and brand guardrail of moving people forward. This led to the bold strategy of letting their cars take a back seat with the video series ‘The Journey'.

1. People over Products.

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2. Don't coerce the audience, connect with them.

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3. Speaking directly to their HXC by highlighting local heroes,  leveraging their networks and in turn innovating within influencer marketing.
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4. Finding Channel Market Fit with long-format content - Youtube + Podcast
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Takeaway:
DON'T SELL THE PRODUCT, TELL A STORY.

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