In a first of its kind media activation, we transformed a television station’s unused airtime into a 4-hour long comedy special to advertise Volkswagen’s newest electric vehicle. With our activation scheduled to coincide with the reveal of the fall television season, we co-opted broadcasters’ new TV show launch playbook to capture the attention of audiences looking for the next hot thing.

In Quebec, celebrity culture transcends mere fascination. Quebec has a unique star system that develops and champions local talent. Personalities frequently appear across different TV programs, and an extensive network of local celebrity news outlets cover them. The press reports not just on the stars themselves, but their friends and family as well – leading audiences to feeling an intimate bond with celebrities, akin to extended family.

Pier-Luc Funk is one such Quebec celebrity. He is an actor and comedian who’s best known for his quirky, deadpan style of comedy. He was a cast member of comedy sketch show SNL Québec (a French-Canadian adaptation of Saturday Night Live). Today, Pier-Luc is part of Quebec’s #1 radio show, and regularly appears in television, film, and on the cover of celebrity magazines.

In Quebec, television reigns as the ultimate medium. Locally produced shows dominate ratings – with the top 20 TV shows easily generating more GRPs/TRPs than the Super Bowl on a weekly basis.

With more automotive brands advertising their respective electric vehicles in Quebec (Canada’s largest EV market by volume), standing apart from the increasing category noise has become more difficult. Volkswagen is a smaller brand in Canada, without the marketing budgets to compete on share-of-voice alone.

Rather than focusing on a media plan that relied on being loud in common-place media channels, we set out to create our own unique media moment that would appeal to Quebec’s love of locally-produced television and homegrown stars.

The main objective of the campaign was to build awareness of Volkswagen’s first all-electric vehicle in Canada – the ID.4. Key performance indicators were familiarity, consideration, purchase intent, and sales.

In Quebec, many TV networks stop broadcasting during the late hours of the night. One of these networks, popular entertainment channel NOOVO, has never broadcasted anything between the hours of 2 AM and 6 AM in its history.

Locals in Quebec call this off-air time “Sans Émission”, which translates to “No broadcast signal”. But “Sans Émission” also has a second meaning: “No gas emissions”, in reference to electric vehicles.

Playing with the double meaning of “Sans Émission”, we partnered with Noovo to turn their unused airtime into a first of its kind media stunt: a 4-hour long comedy special starring comedian Pier-Luc Funk and a charging Volkswagen EV.

We exploited channel Noovo’s unused 2 AM to 6 AM time slot on September 16th to create a new media space. The resulting 4-hour long broadcast was equal parts entertainment for a late-night TV audience and information for EV intenders. It was also Canada's first 4-hour long commercial/TV show.

To ensure maximum viewership, a comprehensive media plan was executed before and after the show's airing. Our media plan and campaign messaging focused on comedian Pier-Luc Funk – making it look like a major Quebec celebrity was launching his latest TV show. Campaign assets counted down to the premiere date and highlighted the unusual overnight time block to build excitement and FOMO (fear of missing out).

After the premiere, it was cut into bite-sized streaming episodes for those who missed the initial broadcast. Viewers could click out directly to Volkswagen’s website to learn more about the ID.4.

Every year, at the start of the fall TV season, television networks launch marketing campaigns to promote the shows they believe will become the biggest hits. Quebec audiences look for these campaigns to discover hot new shows.

Quebec networks all follow a similar launch playbook for these campaigns. We launched Volkswagen’s Sans Émission the exact same way. This included:

- Billboards counting down to our premiere on September 16th. These were strategically placed in Montreal’s arts and entertainment district near other billboards promoting TV shows.

-15-second TV promos aired in rotation with other commercials promoting new shows.

- A listing for Sans Émission in the TV guide (TV and online).

- Social media teaser posts from Noovo, Volkswagen, Pier-Luc Funk, and entertainment pundits.

- A radio show PR tour for Pier-Luc to promote Sans Émission.

Afterwards, the show was cut into smaller episodes and made available for streaming on Noovo.ca.

The overnight broadcast saw over 63,000 people* tune in between 2 and 6 AM. Based on total viewers, this put Sans Émission in the top 6 most-watched live shows on Noovo. It also generated over 2,000,000 earned media impressions in local Quebec media.

This exposure translated into significant increases across Volkswagen’s marketing funnel:

- +15% awareness of Volkswagen as an EV brand†

- +40% familiarity of the all-electric ID.4†

- +54% consideration (94% would now consider buying an ID.4)†

- +100% purchase intent†

The campaign delivered strong business results:

- +64% in ID.4 web-order-form engagements following the live broadcast˚

- +49% growth in Volkswagen’s share of the Quebec EV market△

Sources:

*Noovo viewership data

†Kantar data

˚Adobe Analytics web metrics

△DesRosiers industry sales data