Our target market was judging the Amarok by its cover, so our solution was to remove the cover. We stripped the Amarok of everything that identified it, forcing Australians to judge it without brand prejudice, and on performance alone. We created The Naked Ute and proved that “Tough Comes From Within”.

Our campaign was divided into two phases; Intrigue and Reveal.

Intrigue Phase: We launched with unbranded social content videos and television commercials. All coms directed our audience to guess the identity of The Naked Ute on our unbranded website. The investment in this phase was significant, we needed maximum coverage over 7 days and managed to reach millions of ute considerers.

Reveal phase: Now that our audience were truly impressed with The Naked Ute’s capabilities, it was time to let the cat out of the bag. All communication on social media as well as broadcast TV revealed that The Naked Ute was in fact the Volkswagen Amarok. Neither our 4 cynics or the public at large saw it coming, but they were all impressed by the credentials of the only German ute in Australia.

By targeting potential ute buyers, then retargeting those who’d engaged with the ‘intrigue’ phase of our campaign, we were able to deliver huge reach (roughly half the population of Australia) but increase our efficiency when converting our audience into leads for dealers.

In the first week, 25,000 people registered to guess the brand of the Naked Ute. Once we revealed it was an Amarok, we were able to use data and retargeting tools to reduce the average Cost Per Lead (to dealer) from $225.29 to $93.55.

This set a new local record for Cost Per Lead. Most importantly, the campaign delivered sales results which have since been up 19% year on year.

With the Naked Ute campaign, we managed to capture the imagination of the Aussie ute buyer, challenge their misconceptions about the Amarok and in many cases get them to switch their allegiance from Toyota or Mazda to Volkswagen.

We ran a national unbranded campaign, asking a nation to guess the identity of a mystery vehicle that was stripped of everything that identified it.

By tailoring our message to channels like broadcast TV, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, press and a Microsite, we encouraged our audience to debate what they thought it might be. Social content videos, TV commercials, gifs, stills and social posts kept the conversation going.

Later, the same channels were used to reveal that the Volkswagen Amarok was behind the campaign.

In an unprecedented move, we ran a national unbranded campaign, encouraging Australia to guess and debate what they thought The Naked Ute was. We communicated the benefits of a mystery vehicle with no price, no link to dealerships and no branding of any kind.

Using Facebook as our key channel with targeted investment against the relevant audience, we created entertaining unbranded content videos that depicted 4 true Amarok cynics test driving The Naked Ute.

Online and social activity was supported with unbranded broadcast TV commercials, directing viewers to guess the identity of The Naked Ute on our website.

We created a custom audience using behavioral data so we could re-connect with our audience who had engaged with our ‘naked ute’.

After an entire week of impressing our audience with the capabilities of The Naked Ute, we revealed that it was in fact the Volkswagen Amarok.

In Australian, a ute (pick-up truck) is a way of life more than it is a means of transport. These vehicles need to accommodate bricks, kids, cattle, surfboards, sand, and the occasional head-on-collision with a Kangaroo at sunset.

So when the sexy Volkswagen Amarok, the only European ute in the market, arrived on our shores it was met with a great deal of skepticism. Even though its capability, power and off road credentials were unquestionable, Aussie blokes saw the Amarok’s sleek design as a sign of weakness. They believed that a ute that looked that good meant it was a soft city car, and that it would never cope with the demands of harsh Australian conditions.

Our task was to shift brand perceptions and convince our market that the Amarok was more workhorse than show pony.