Volkswagen of America rolled out a new campaign for the redesigned third-generation Tiguan SUV. The fresh take on Tiguan sports a new look and a clear focus as a roomy two-row powerhouse.
Collaborating with agency Johannes Leonardo, the campaign’s central message revolves around the tagline, “Now anybody can drive like Somebody.” The first spot in the series, titled “The Dogs,” combines stylish visuals with the soul anthem “Mr. Big Stuff” by Jean McKnight.
This campaign is the beginning of a multi-spot series, featuring actor Timothy Simons, which launched in June.
Here’s what iSpot’s Creative Assessment platform revealed on actual viewer response to the spot.
The Details:
- The “Mr. Big Stuff” soundtrack along with the adorable dogs (characters) delivered exceptionally strong breakthrough for “Drive Like Somebody,” each of which were more impressionable vs the average non-lux auto ad at 3X the rate:
- The new Tiguan :30 resonated particularly well with female viewers and M21-35; however, the creative met normative response benchmarks for the category (past year) among older males as well, pointing to broad reach media, if desired.
- Of course, this spot by design was not particularly informative on the Tiguan vehicle itself, which likely tempered consumer intent to some extent (still within normative range).
- Although VW unaided recall appears to have trailed the norm of 83%, multiple misspellings for Volkswagen were seen that render recall at about-norm levels.
- The new Tiguan :30 resonated particularly well with female viewers and M21-35; however, the creative met normative response benchmarks for the category (past year) among older males as well, pointing to broad reach media, if desired.
- “Drive Like Somebody” appealed broadly across auto intender groups as well as consumers considering compacts, sedans, and SUVS:
- Second-by-second trace reveals a bump in engagement at each dog scene but viewer comments reflected the missing vehicle information (intended on VW’s part for this first teaser):
- While grabbing Attention and highly Likeable, entertaining, and even relatable, few viewers recalled the Tiguan model on an unaided basis (2% as seen on the first chart above) and just five verbatims included the model specifically.
- For a subset of viewers, the ad screamed luxury to the point of feeling out of touch.
- While grabbing Attention and highly Likeable, entertaining, and even relatable, few viewers recalled the Tiguan model on an unaided basis (2% as seen on the first chart above) and just five verbatims included the model specifically.
Sample comments on “Drive Like Somebody” :30
“The music IMMEDIATELY got my attention. I loved the use of the natural color tones. The VW vehicle itself is stunning. The absolute best part was the dogs featured.”
Female 36-49
“It’s a good idea, finding a niche like dogs and have them to compare and see the bulldog, as if the other dogs are jealous of him. I think it would’ve been 100x better if you included what features the car has. Would bring way more attention.”
Male 21-35
“I mean, too much dog, not enough car…”
Male 36-49
“I really like the message of this ad. The fanciful dogs looking at the bulldog in the Tiguan is pretty funny. I totally get the message and I think it’s a great ad.”
Female 36-49
“I loved the ad. It had all the good points I really enjoy: a good background track, a cool car, and dogs. The ad was fun to watch and very informative.”
Male 21-35
“The ad shows mostly wealthy people and doesn’t really give hope to middle or low-class people of ever having one.”
Male 21-35
“Absolutely love the dogs in the ad. My dogs love to be in the car so I could totally relate to it and the music was appropriate.”
Female 50+
“I like the entertaining music and, most of all, the fun antics of the dogs and their body language/facial expressions.”
Male 36-49
“The message at the end is nice but up until that, it seems like you are just marketing toward a wealthy or luxury audience (of dog lovers?). It felt out of touch until the literal last second. I just immediately was like ‘yeah, I’m not in that tax bracket.’”
Female 21-35
“Shame on you for associating a decent, down-to-earth product with social climbing frauds. Guess that makes you one.”
Male 50+
“The ad doesn’t stand out from other car ads and it doesn’t go into detail about important features about the vehicle. For example, it doesn’t talk about the vehicle’s fuel efficiency or the safety features.”
Female 21-35
- Many of the best received non-lux auto ads over the past 90 days addressed the ongoing auto tariff situation, with mentions of price actions/maintenance, investment in America, assembly in American plants and other patriotic tones appealing broadly:
- A feature-focused Ford Bronco :15 and a visually imaginative :30 for the Toyota 4Runner also enjoyed strong positive reactions from American consumers.
- As would be expected, the feature-centric Ford ad was most persuasive to one-year auto intenders, with Toyota’s appeal earning the strongest Top Box consideration (40%; +9 pts over norm):
- “Drive Like Somebody” sparked purchase/visit intent among 62% of one-year intenders (at norm), the lowest among this set of competitive creatives.
- The Tiguan ad still enjoyed even more positive response among these one-year intenders vs the general audience.
- “Drive Like Somebody” sparked purchase/visit intent among 62% of one-year intenders (at norm), the lowest among this set of competitive creatives.
Among one-year auto intenders:
- The Tiguan spot saw a slight relative weakness among viewers with incomes <$40K compared to the competitive set. Given the perception of luxury/higher price reflected in viewer comments above, this could point to opportunity for VW to call out the new lowered starting price in future ads:
- Among one-year intenders, the “Drive Like Somebody” (Top Dogs) concept felt Upscale, which could be setting up an opportunity to draw attention and offer value once the new MRSP is revealed:
One-year intenders
“The dogs were funny and made this car look upper class.”
Female 21-35
“Liked the vibe and the visual scenes of luxury with VW. Hippy and bougie.”
Male 36-49
“Volkswagen is just as classy as the more expensive brands.”
Female 36-49
“It was clever and made me think the brand was top quality.”
Male 50+
“To see Volkswagen as luxury cars.”
Female 21-35
“It looks high class and I like the scenes with the dogs.”
Female 21-35
“It made me think that they offer sleek and stylish vehicles.”
Male 36-49
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Creative Agency: Johannes Leonardo