The Effie Awards Europe 2020 has revealed its finalists and selected PHD Global Business’s ‘For The Many, Not The Few’ campaign for the Volkwagen ID.3 in the Automotive category. This past September, PHD won the Automotive category at the World Media Awards for the same campaign, with the jury commenting that it provided “a great solution around the democratisation of new electronic vehicle technology to make the Volkswagen ID.3 synonymous with e-mobility.”
A brief summary of ‘Volkswagen – For the Many, Not the Few’
The Challenge
VW hoped to bring e-mobility to the many, not the privileged few and make the Volkswagen ID.3 synonymous with e-mobility. They were ranked 17th in Electric Vehicles (EV) leadership across the EU. Playing with the tension between mass and narrow media, PHD and VW convinced 30,000 people to each deposit €1,000 bringing Volkswagen and e-mobility closer together, with the big twist that VW didn’t even show the car!
The Creative Solution
PHD created two distinct roles for communication: 1. Fame: Talking to the masses through a high-reaching emotional manifesto to announce Volkswagen’s intent within e-mobility. 2. Persuasion: Tightly targeting early adopters to break down barriers and land desirability of a model no-one could see through PR and digital channels.
The Results
The campaign elevated Volkswagen to the #1 most searched brand in the e-mobility arena moving ahead of Tesla for the first time (using a proprietary “search curiosity” metric developed with Google). PHD succeeded in generating 30,000 deposits for the ID.3 which people couldn’t even see! The deposits were achieved leading up to the unveiling at the IAA auto show in Frankfurt. Additionally, the website conversion target more than doubled.
Effie Awards Europe 2020 finalists will be judged at Final Round Judging on 16 and 17 November 2020 to determine which campaigns will become winners.
The Effie Awards were launched in 1968 by the New York American Marketing Association as an awards programme to honour the most effective advertising efforts. The award now honours all forms of effective marketing and the companies and individuals creating effective work across the globe.
