The Telegraph reported an alarming statistic that more than 500,000 car accidents in the UK have been caused by women applying make-up. Seeing that safety is one of Volkswagen’s top priorities, they wanted to shed light on the issue and alert women to this serious issue while keeping maintaining their brand DNA. In order to gain the attention of our audience, we used the latest digital trend among make-up buyers as our vehicle: YouTube hauling channels. Haul videos are clips of everyday women reviewing the latest 'haul' of cosmetics that they have purchased, followed by a make-up tutorial. We partnered with a popular haul-girl named Nikkie, who has over 25m views and 170,000 subscribers, to help spread the message. The video began like any other of her videos, narrating as she applies make-up, until she is suddenly flung towards the camera as if she had been in a car accident. By using make-up tutorials as a vessel to communicate Volkswagen’s message, we addressed our audience directly, with unwavering accuracy. In addition, utilising a trusted, well-known figure within the hauling community allowed the message to be heard by thousands and also kept the campaign relevant and true to the brand. We simply uploaded the video to Nikkie’s channel and since going live the video has garnered over 161,000 views, 2,200 comments, 440 favourites, 4,102 likes with a like to dislike ratio of 26:1 and has spread to other major social networks such as Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ and Facebook. This is appropriate to PR Lions because of the sheer amount of coverage the campaign has received with virtually zero media spend.

We worked with Nikkie, a famous haul-girl with over 170k subscribers and 25mm views to broadcast our message. The video began like any other of her videos, narrating as she applies make-up, until she is suddenly flung towards the camera as if she had been in a car accident.

We uploaded the video solely to Nikkie’s Youtube channel and it has since proliferated to other major social networks such as Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ and Facebook.

• “Lol my mom puts lipstick on while driving. I'ma show her this.”• “LOVE this, I dont know how many times i can say it... BUT i love it, I love that you did this to let people know the danger's of doing make-up while driving, And how it can harm you and people around you if they crash. MUAH! Great job Nikkie!”.

• “So real. My friend was killed by another driver who was applying her make-up, luckily her daughter lived.. The driver who hit her openly admitted she didnt see them because she was reapplying her mascara.”The goal of the project was to communicate the dangers of driving while applying make-up. We went beyond and started a conversation.