The Best Advertising Campaign in Business History | VW Beetle | Business & Advertising
In the 1950s, the Volkswagen Beetle entered the US market. The DDB (Doyle Dane Bernbach) agency made a small revolution in the advertising industry. Let's analyze this business case: reasons, tools, events and results.
At first, Americans considered the new Volkswagen Type1, aka Volkswagen Beetle, aka "Beetle", to be ugly!!!!!!!!!!! The car does not stand up to comparison with large luxury American cars from Chrysler, GM, Ford and dozens of other brands. Consumers perceived the Beetle (in advertising, the car was simply called Volkswagen, since this was the only model) with a grin. It seemed to them ugly, not prestigious, small, indecently strange. The only advantage of the car is the price, but the bewilderment of consumers outweighs. The Beetle needed cool advertising, since the initial reaction of the US market was extremely negative.
DDB ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES:
increase sales
create a strong image
get rid of associations with Nazis
SOLUTION OF PROBLEMS:
make advertising completely different from what everyone is used to in the USA
don't be shy about laughing at the car's shortcomings
present the car's shortcomings as advantages
THINK SMALL is the first and most important slogan. The text under the small photo of the Beetle read: Our small car is no longer a novelty. Schoolchildren have stopped trying to squeeze into it by the dozens. The guy at the gas station no longer asks where the fuel fits. No one even stares at our forms. And the people who drive our little thing have already stopped thinking that 7 liters per 100 kilometers is such a big success. Or that you need a little over two liters of oil instead of five. Or that you don't need to add antifreeze at all. Or that you can drive 60 thousand kilometers on one tire. That's why, once you get used to our frugality, you just stop thinking about it. Except when you're squeezing into a small parking space. Or renewing your small insurance. Or paying a small repair bill. Or trading in your old VW for a new one with extra money.
Think about it.
The bet on intelligent advertising worked. The pressure to admit shortcomings worked too. But more importantly, it's a vivid image. An image of a car without a gender, without associations with a specific family. A car for the frugal and smart. For those who know something.
And it worked. The Beetle came out in 1948, the first million units were in the mid-50s, 15 million in the early 70s. And finally, in 2003, after 55 years, production was stopped. In total, more than 21 million Beetles of the first model were produced. Yes, there were two more generations, they did not significantly increase the overall record. The Beetle ad was revolutionary. Part of the American public realized how ugly and tasteless the advertising before the 50s was. We feel that influence today, BECAUSE ADVERTISING HAS BECOME SMARTER.
CONTENTS:
00:00 - Introduction
00:22 - What is this episode about
00:30 - A brief history of the Beetle
00:56 - Entering the US market in the 1950s
01:12 - What cars were in the US
02:23 - Consumer reaction to the Volkswagen Beetle
02:49 - Advertising agency DDB
02:57 - The challenges facing the advertising agency
03:49 - The concept of the advertising campaign
04:19 - What kind of advertising was familiar to Americans
04:53 - The first advertisement for the Volkswagen Beetle
05:15 - Think Small: translation of the advertising text
06:03 - Review of different advertising modules for the Beetle
06:35 - Family images in advertising
08:02 - Price comparison in the 1950s-60s
08:31 - What is special about advertising "Zhuka"
09:06 - Everyone was discussing the "Zhuka" commercial
09:39 - An example of a TV commercial "Funeral"
10:36 - Let's sum it up
11:41 - Farewell