Volkswagen is promoting the Golf GTI Edition 35 in the UK with a new campaign celebrating 35 years since the model was launched by turning it into a ‘time machine’ and sending it back through the decades.
The online and experiential campaign launched with a live event staged at the Truman Brewery in East London, as two engineers clambered into the GTI time machine and accelerated towards a wall, when it vanished and apparently reappeared at Volkswagen’s German headquarters in Wolfsburg in 1976.
The event has been made into a viral film which is being broadcast on the Volkswagen UK Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/VolkswagenUK) and seeded to a wide range of blogs and websites.
Over the next four weeks, fans will be able to follow the story of the Golf GTI and its two engineers on Facebook as they make their way back through the decades, dropping in on a range of historic moments along the way. Their adventures will be documented through a series of daily posts – a mix of film footage, competitions and photographs.
The campaign has been created by DDB UK with the live event and videos produced by Passion Raw.
VW national communications manager Nigel Brotherton said: “What we love about the GTI time travel campaign is that it not only reflects the unique personality and heritage of the brand but our creative relationship with DDB. The event perfectly celebrated the heritage of our much loved GTI, while warmly welcoming the new Edition 35 to the UK.”
DDB UK executive creative director Jeremy Craigen commented: “We have avoided being unduly reverential when it comes to marking this milestone in the history of Volkswagen’s most iconic car; instead, the campaign is both irreverent and totally inclusive – two characteristics that are entirely in keeping with the original philosophy behind the GTI.”
