While many car companies have Web sites where someone can build a car with the features he wants, Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B), Miami, has taken the concept a step further. On VWFeatures.com, agency artisans have created a place where anyone interested in a Volkswagen GTI can customize the car from a myriad of options and take it for a joyride.
“Most sites don’t really feel like you’re putting the car together [instead] you’re sort of picking some things,” executive creative director Andrew Keller said. “… In terms of what you feel like you’re affecting on your car, it’s mainly like the color or you can put some stripes on it or something. Whereas with GTI we wanted it to feel like you’re involvement really starts further back as you spec out all of the elements of your vehicle.”
The site for the GTI MkV (pronounced mark five) allows visitors to customize a GTI’s body, transmission, wheels, interior, accessories, tools and “Fast.” In each category the options expand. For example, in the body category, visitors can choose the color and body kit they prefer as well as whether or not they want a sunroof. In total there are 11 different features, like seat selection, with 33 different options, like cloth or leather.
As a program applies the selections to a car, statistics on the top track speed, drag coefficient, 0-60 time, and price change on the right hand of the page. Then the entertainment portion of the program begins.
Once someone has outfitted a GTI, he or she can take it for a spin by clicking “Watch your joyride.” Then a Web film begins with the car spinning into view and Helga, a blond bombshell and German engineer, stepping out of the car and talking into the camera. She throws the keys to you and tells you to get into the car. While you are behind the wheel of the GTI, she points out the features you have chosen and describes them.
The car moves out of an airport hangar and onto a closed course where it races around while Helga continues to talk to you. As you drive the car back into the hanger she says, “Let’s get you back to the Internet,” or “the World Wide Web” depending on which film you’re shown.
JOYRIDE CHALLENGE The Web film that plays in the joyride section changes based on the features the visitor has chosen so that each visitor can go for a joyride in the car he or she designed–though the target audience is 18-24 year old guys.
With the number of options they had to offer in the films, creatives at CP+B decided to break the footage into “pods,” which are basically scenes showcasing different features and shots of the car. On the Web site, the pods are assembled in a program based on a visitor’s selection and then the complete film is shown.
There are 34, 560 possible film combinations so the beginnings and ends of each pod had to string together somewhat seamlessly. However, they didn’t want it to look too organic, Keller shared. Instead they wanted it to feel like it is computer generated based on the driver’s decisions. Helga also takes on a robotic feel at times.
In addition to the many scenes that director Jonas Akerlund of bicoastal RSA Films had to get on the set at an airport in San Bernardino, Calif., there were CG elements created by Digital Domain, Venice, Calif. The team at Digital Domain created all of the cars that spin into the first frame completely with CG. Art director Tiffany Kosel estimates there are 2000 possible combinations for that one scene.
“When you start to add up all of those little pods it turns into, ultimately there are thousands of different combinations of storylines if you count how visually different the car could be in any given film,” Kosel related. “…As we developed these little pods and edited them, we had to then randomly assemble a grouping of pods based on what a user’s selections might be and we had to make sure that those edits seemed like they matched up and were a complete film.”
IQ Interactive, Atlanta, was the shop’s development partner for the site. Editor Christjan Jordan cut the work through Cosmo Street, Los Angeles.
“It was probably one of the most complicated, if not the most complicated, project I’ve ever worked on,” Kosel said.
A NEW TAKE ON A CLASSIC CP+B has created two campaigns–“Fast” and “Pre-tuned”– to promote the GTI. The first has spots where an inanimate object referred to as a “Fast,” which looks like a cross between a black ball and a demonic rabbit, compels people to embrace their passion for driving the GTI. “Fast is the representation of the thing inside of you that never wants to stop and wants to really enjoy the performance and fast movement,” Keller explained.
The second “Pre-tuned” campaign has spots with Helga and another engineer named Wolfgang who encourage people to “unpimp” their souped-up cars and opt instead for the more refined GTI. A voiceover in the closing of each of the spots–“Catapult,” “Wrecking Ball” and “Crate”–relates “The GTI Mark Five (MkV), pre-tuned by German engineers.” VWFeatures.com has elements of both campaigns in it but seems more closely tied to “Pre-tuned.”
Keller explained that in the 1980s, VW began to lead the “hot-hatch” category with the Rabbit, which was the precursor to the GTI. That is why “Fast” resemble the animal.
“The GTI’s perspective on this is, “We started this whole thing and it’s gotten kind of out of control and we feel like it’s our job to stand up and say, “Let’s get this thing under control because our values are much more about restraint and clean and torque than day-glo and whale tails and street racing,’ ” he shared.
Meanwhile, the eccentric experts and this tone signal to audience members that something new is going on with the GTI. “It’s creating relevance for this German engineering notion. It’s something that Volkswagen has always played on and that’s a huge part of the Volkswagen DNA, but how do we make that relevant and how do we have a position in this hot-hatch category,” Keller said of taking this creative direction with Helga and Wolfgang. “Well we’re different and we’re proud of it and this is who we are; we’re German engineers and we’re cars that are a little bit more subtle and restrained but it doesn’t mean that we don’t have an edge and it doesn’t mean that we don’t have a sense of humor. It just means we’re different.”
