Branded content is viewed as a crucial part of an advertising campaign in the current US marketplace. The relationship between brands and entertainment has evolved from “product placement” to truly integrating the brand into entertainment assets or creating content other than commercials where the product can play an important or character role in the finished production.

But these aren’t just any old wives – they happen to be the Three Golden Sisters – Internet famous for reviewing pop-culture trends like Kim Kardashian’s sex tape. We also partnered with social influencers Tanner Foust and Tuna the Dog (the Internet’s most famous ugly dog) to tell our myth-busting story across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Unique, looping versions of the videos were created for Instagram. A Tumblr page served as the hub to tell the entire myth-busting story. The videos were also part of a larger paid-media buy during Turner’s March Madness live stream.

• In the first 3 weeks, there was a 50% increase in brand mentions related to TDI, fuel efficiency and diesel compared to January, and a 99% increase over average conversation for the brand.

• The campaign garnered over 173 million impressions and over 16.2 million video views.

• On vw.com, there was a 13% lift in TDI configurations between Feb-Mar 2014 to Feb-Mar 2015. We saw a 35% increase in total TDI-related configurations per daily unique visitor.

• Compared to just before the campaign, VW gained an additional 6.3 points share of the market of all diesel sales.