For Volkswagen, as a Big Legacy Business and an Automotive brand known as the peoples car, it is a business and brand imperative to look at ways to apply its business energy ethically, creatively and responsibly to add significant value beyond profit.

In a country with a failing road infrastructure, frequent electricity black outs, South Africa has one of the highest road death rates in the world, with nearly 60% happening at night.

The brief was to find a solution that not only reminded South Africans that their safety is Volkswagen’s main priority, but empowered all road-users (not just Volkswagen drivers) to make the roads safer for everyone.

Our objective was to leverage Volkswagen's scale and influence and form strategic partnerships to educate, train and empower road-users on safe night-driving - impacting the official drivers test for every new driver on the road.

Working with the Volkswagen Advanced Driving Academy and using data from the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), we developed VW Night School.

The world's first night-driving safety academy developed by a brand at scale.

With 6 modules consisting of Vehicle Pre-Checks, Safety, Vision, Ability, Conditions, and External Hazards, the curriculum has been designed to teach people to be safer on the road at night.

We partnered with the Government to support and encourage the initiative, Insurance Companies to offer reduced premiums for course completions, and a network of influence to drive the conversation.

We’ve open-sourced the curriculum to ensure any driver can participate, with the intention of implementing modules within the Official Drivers Test in South Africa.

We focussed on two audiences – General population, and the youth.

Young drivers (25yrs+) are the most at risk, making up 41.4% of fatalities due to inexperience on the roads, and higher frequency of driving at night due to their lifestyle.

They're also the key target market for the brand’s biggest volume sales – the hatch models. Versions of these are used throughout the practical course, giving drivers an accurate experience of the vehicle tech in the conditions.

There are two issues that leave drivers ill-equipped to face the dangers of driving at night.

1) We only learn to drive during the day

2) We never learn to drive under duress

3) Learning is always within the speed limit and never teaches drivers to react to unexpected situations at high speeds

We then developed a curriculum that gave audiences an accurate experience, with practical skills for avoiding accidents at night.

The Night School initiative launched at the Advanced Driving Academy at Zwartskop Raceway 4 months ago. An audience consisting of Transport and Government Officials, Motoring Journalists, Press, Partner Brands, and youth influencers attended.

Each was taken through the course and then mobilized to drive the campaign nationwide through their platforms.

The fully integrated campaign featured the practical course, website with Online Curriculum, OOH at areas with high traffic frequency, targeted tactical media at specific times of the day/evening and during Loadshedding (Blackouts) on SA’s only Loadshedding Alert App, University platforms, Content pieces in motoring publications, Influencer content on all social platforms, radio talk shows, and youth culture segments on TV.

The official training curriculum launched on 1 April 2024, where anyone can take the training.

The VW Night School Initiative launched in January, where we have reached over 20 million South Africans with our night-time safety message.

On the 1 April, we launched our Night Time training curriculum.

We are committed to training 1 million people to be safer on our roads in year one.

We have a commitment by government to implement modules into the Official Drivers Test in South Africa.

+200% Positive Brand Sentiment around safety cementing the positioning of VW as the people's car and responsible brand people can rely on.