With the market launch of the new Taigo, a stylish coupé SUV, Volkswagen wants to address millennials. But how do you reach a target group that is not open to advertising? Especially with a brand like Volkswagen which is usually focused on reaching a much broader audience. The focus was to move away from traditional ways of advertising and instead create relevant content and play it out authentically. This campaign is designed to be remembered by young minds as something that goes beyond pure product advertising and is perceived more as music entertainment.

To communicate successfully with millennials, you not only have to become part of their culture, but also adapt to their browsing behaviour. With the help of Google Data analysis, we learned that our target group's biggest passion is music. Especially when it comes to new upcoming artists that trigger the feeling "I heard it first". This effect was used as the basis for the #FeaturingTaigo campaign. A campaign that truly collaborates with upcoming artists by supporting them with high-quality productions of their individual music videos, allowing them their creative freedom instead of promoting classic advertising assets.

The goal was to create more than branded product placement or a classic testimonial campaign but contemporary music content. It was about creating something that is truly culturally authentic and supports those who would otherwise not have the chance to produce quality content. Because when it comes to targeting younger audiences, brands need to be aware of the fact that traditional advertising is no longer the best way to engage audiences. Rather, you have to combine earned, owned and paid content to build synergy between brand, culture and artists. Like it was done in the Taigo Campaign. The result was a different kind of influencer campaign that can be found on all relevant online touchpoints such as YouTube, Spotify, Instagram and Tik Tok. By doing so, not only did a brand become relevant to an atypical audience, but talented artists were put in the spotlight they deserve.

The pan-European campaign was played out in all major markets such as Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Spain and many more. It consisted of the three main music videos and over 300 additional assets. All these assets were pushed via paid media over a period of 4 months and placed on all social media platforms relevant to the artists and Volkswagen combined. Also implementing new ways of media for Volkswagen such as Tik Tok and Spotify. Additionally, not only advertising assets were pushed by Volkswagen but also assets that purely promoted the artists and linked to their channels instead of the brand website.

The campaign reached 19.7 million media impressions in the first week. Not only did people see the content re-edited from the music videos but also visited the channels of the artists. The artists' content saw a strong increase in numbers in the first 30 days compared to their usual releases. In total they reached the following streams and views combined on their relevant channels:

The Electro-Trio GHEIST reached 250.000 views and streams.

The MC/Rapper Yugen Blakrok reached 245.000 views and streams.

The Indie-Pop Artist Chris James reached 197.000 views and streams.

The campaign sparked several international online magazines to write about the release as well as many users engaging positively with the content in the comments and by likes.