This campaign masterfully blends music and brand heritage, reviving the iconic Brazilian singer Elis Regina using advanced AI deepfake technology for a virtual duet with her daughter, Maria Rita. It commemorates Volkswagen's 70th anniversary in Brazil and introduces their electric vehicle line. The choice of the song "Like Our Parents" resonates deeply, reflecting on past and future, making it profoundly relevant. The campaign leverages the emotional pull of music, showcases Volkswagen’s innovation, creates a strong emotional and cultural connection with consumers and rises both singers back to the spotlight. This makes it a perfect fit for the Music Entertainment category.

Volkswagen, the first automaker in Brazil, became a cultural icon, intertwined with the lives of millions of Brazilians and top in sales for decades. Known as 'Volks', it was seen as quintessentially Brazilian despite its German origins. However, as the market evolved rapidly with new technologies and competitors, Volkswagen struggled to keep pace. It launched products later than rivals and began losing its connection with Brazilian consumers. The brand faced the risk of becoming obsolete in the emerging era of electrification, having not introduced any electric or hybrid models in a market increasingly focused on the future.

The choice of the artists and their song for the campaign was strategic. The song itself is a cultural touchstone, called “Just Like Our Parents” is a Brazilian anthem that talks about the continuity and change between generations and how “the new always come” (the lyrics say “It is you who loves the past and doesn’t see that the new always come”), mirroring Volkswagen’s message of evolving yet staying true to its roots.

Elis Regina is a Brazilian music legend, considered the greatest female Brazilian singer in history, by Rolling Stones Magazine (and many Brazilian people as well). She died in 1986, leaving behind a 4-year-old daughter: Maria Rita. That many years later, would become “one of the greatest voices of the country” (word of New York Times, not ours), winning a total of 8 Grammy Awards, and 10 Platinum Discs.

Since 2018, Volkswagen had been striving, through new launches, to position itself at the same level of innovation as its competitors. In 2023, on its 70th anniversary, an opportunity arose: the unveiling of its first electric-cars. But the year began with aggressive sales challenges. In this scenario, the client's request was to create content to spread (mainly) on social-media with an ambitious goal: to reestablish an emotional connection between Volkswagen and Brazilians.

But there were also many objectives combined:

-To celebrate VW’s 70th anniversary in Brazil,

-To say that each Volkswagen carries with it the innovation and quality of the previous generation of VW cars;

-To introduce the 1st VW electrics in Brazil, to show the current line and the classics cars that became part of the culture;

-To do all that while showing the current line of cars and also the classics ones that became part of Brazilian culture.

We delved into research, interviews, and everything shared about Volkswagen. It became evident that no brand has as many stories with Brazilians as Volks. Volkswagen has been present in the country's history and in the lives of Brazilians, it has become part of the Brazilian culture. This baggage is positive, but alone it ages the brand and distances new consumers. Therefore, our strategy was to add the emotional value of the past to the innovations of the present, to establish itself once again as the automaker that is part of people's lives. Something that only VW could achieve. Where VOLKS (people) and WAGEN (cars) walk together and share real stories. In practice, we added the 70 years of Volkswagen to the arrival of the ID line (electric vehicles), especially the ID.Buzz, the evolution of the iconic Kombi (VW Bus), a car that embodies the combination of past and future.

The perfect blend of nostalgia and innovation. To bring together the past and present, and to represent the quality and innovation that’s passed down to every generation ov VW cars, we gathered two singers from different generations. An encounter between Maria Rita, an award-winning singer, and Elis Regina, Maria Rita's late mother. We chose the song “Just Like Our Parents”, a Brazilian anthem released in 1976 by Elis, which remains popular to this day. The song talks about the relationship between past and future, and says: 'the new always comes,' which is precisely what we needed to present from Volkswagen, a brand with a relevant history but always innovating, looking towards the future.

And they sing together, while driving side by side. All that, interspersed with nostalgic scenes, very present in Brazilian culture. Showing cars that entered popular culture, (Beetle, Brasília, etc.), and also the models form the current fleet.

The commercial was shot with an actress that resembled Elis Regina, and Elis' face was meticulously crafted using deepfake technology and superimposed in post-production.

Elis' original voice in the song was preserved while Maria Rita provided a new instrumental arrangement and new vocals for the duet.

The film was released on July 3, 2023. First released on WhatsApp. Right afterwards, it was releases on YouTube and social media (everything organically). Paid media was introduced only a week later, when the full 2-minute version was aired on TV. The commercial spread throughout the country like wildfire. Due to its overwhelming success, the client did not continue the media investment they had planned. For all the goals have already been beaten and extrapolated. MTV selected the commercial to be shown as a music video on MTV HITs what exemplifies its innovative execution and impactful scale.

Brand’s results from the first week, before any media spending:

-Viral sensation, over 24 hours in the #1 trend topic (X, YouTube, Google)

-Over 50.000.000 organic views (excluding WhatsApp, its primary channel)

-Over 2.000.000.000 impressions (that’s almost 10 for each Brazilian)

-It entered people's conversations. The highest organic engagement in Brazil's advertising history.

-After that, VW made sales leader within two weeks, a feat unseen in 10 years. And closed 2023 as the fastest-growing auto brand.

-To summarize: it generated the highets volume of conversations in the brand’s history.

Artists’ Results:

-MTV selected the commercial to be shown as a music-video

-+2.000% in searches on Google and Youtube

-Maria Rita had a 350% increase in concert invitations.

-Even invited to perform the campaign-song to the president (who cried during the performance).

-Elis Regina got over 1 million of new listeners on music platforms such as Spotify, Deezer and Amazon Music.