Volkswagen launch campaign in late 1950s is my favourite one: Rajeev Raja

That campaign sold more Volkswagens than possibly any other campaign, says Founder & Soundsmith BrandMusiq

Which is your favourite campaign and why?

It’s definitely the Volkswagen launch campaign in the United States in the late 1950s by Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB). They had ads like Think Small (Beetle). With that Volkswagen campaign, William “Bill” Bernbach and Halmut Krone set the entire tone for Volkswagen which exists even today.

On what parameters did you base your choice?

I believe Bill Bernbach fostered a creative revolution in the US with this ad. A lot of good work had been done in automobile advertising till then such as David Ogilvy’s famous Rolls Royce campaign but Bernbach took it to another level of subtlety and he said that you don’t have to hit the consumer on the head with a hammer, you can persuade the consumer using wit, charm, subtlety and humour and surprise him.  

It was also one of the first ads for Volkswagen. Part of this campaign was the Think Small advertising. Now in a country where the norm was having these huge Impalas and Chevrolets, came this little car. It was revolutionary as it was a German car released just a few years after the Second World War with a so-called ugly shape but they made that unusual shape into something cute and the choice of the 1960s flower power generation in the era of love and peace and happiness. It and other vehicles like the Volkswagen van became the cars in which musicians and other artistes would travel during the Woodstock. So they became iconic. So the entire hippie culture revolved around the Volkswagen van. So they took an unknown foreign brand from nowhere and made it iconic. Even today, every Volkswagen ad has a criterion that it must lead to a twinkle in the eye. Not banana peel humour but a subtle twinkle.

What do you think was the key idea the campaign was trying to drive home?

It was an amazing example of building the intangibles of a brand. The fact that it all became part of the Volkswagen brand image is the difference between that campaign and the other one-off campaigns that keep you engaged but don’t build a brand in people’s eyes and minds and hearts. The big idea was “small is good”.

Do you remember the campaign winning any advertising awards? Do you think these awards serve any purpose?

Back in the day, I am sure it must have won a lot of awards because it just burst on to the scene and blew everyone away. It was also very grounded advertising. That campaign sold more Volkswagens than possibly any other campaign. So it wasn’t just clever creative for the sake of awards but it was something that got more cars on the road and also won awards. That’s the best example of the power of advertising. Narrative overpowering the brand was not the case here. Because if you go through the ads, there were not just cars but also information about how the cars are built, German efficiency, how much trouble went into those cars and so on.

You spent decades in advertising before moving on and setting up BrandMusiq which specialises in creating audio identities for brands. Did the Volkeswagen campaign inspire any of your work?

I had the good fortune of handling the Volkeswagen launch in India. I remember the talking newspaper and other innovations for that. While I wouldn’t like to talk about those but they were inspired by some of the great work done in the 1960s.
 

A long-lasting twinkle

MY TAKE: The ad took a relatively unknown brand and made it iconic
 
Brand: Volkeswagen
Year of launch: 1950s
Agency: DDB