VW EscapeTV, the first podcasting TV-channel

VW EscapeTV (http://www.vwescape.tv) is born out of an issue Volkswagen Belgium asked us to solve.  Our client had to face a loss of market share in the 18-28 segment. Youngsters saw this brand as “too expensive and too rational”, although this perception was actually wrong. After the huge success of the Golf series in the past, Volkswagen was no longer “top of mind” as young drivers bought their first car. The time was ripe for a more inspirational, creative approach to rejuvenate the VW brand.

The point is youngsters don’t really “surf” if you look carefully at their media consumption scheme. As digital natives who never knew a “disconnected” world, they live all day in a global ecosystem made of web browsers, instant messaging clients, iPods, mobile phones, PSP… There is no longer a clean border between their social life and their media consumption: interactive digital media is at the same time the platform to get in touch with friends and the dominant channel to find info and entertainment.

VW EscapeTV strives to reach the “always on” young consumer through a TV-channel you can watch wherever, whenever you want on all these new alternative devices. Get a rid of your old TV-cable and discover a new downloadable TV show that is synonymous with freedom… just like the very first car you buy.

On the content side, VW EscapeTV is a monthly magazine talking about celebrities, movie releases, music news, video games… and all the cultural and entertainment events supported by Volkswagen in Belgium (branded-entertainment dimension). Seven episodes have been released so far. As Belgium counts two main official languages (French and Dutch), each new issue is produced in two different versions with distinctive content and program hosts.

The campaign consisted of two phases.

- During the teasing phase, we created a buzz by organizing an online interactive casting. Surfers could record a footage with their webcam and submit the outcome on the EscapeTV website. The candidates who got the majority of votes from other surfers were selected as program hosts. Additionally, we spread the rumor of an upcoming new TV channel through “true-false” bootlegged reports on blogs, “true-false” classifieds on classified websites…

- After the official launch, we keep on fostering the word of mouth by spreading the show content on different “Web 2.0” platforms like YouTube, Flickr, Del.icio.us, MySpace… We also added a PR layer on the launch day by sending an anonymous box to Belgian newspapers and televisions. Inside the package were a piece of broken TV-cable and an anonymous message: “today, get free from TV-cable, surf on www.vwescape.tv”.

Conclusions

Why this project makes sense:

- It’s “more”, it’s different, it’s hype; it speaks to youngsters (trendy design, use of video, relevant content, cool, young and fresh tone of voice).

- It touches youngsters where and when they want (not only the Internet is relevant but also on their different devices, from iPod to cell phone)

- It takes into account the “word of mouth” aspect of the web (multi-presence: the site, iTunes, RSS…).

The results are tremendous: about 40.000 viewers watch every new episode (a figure to be compared with the 10 millions Belgian inhabitants), while this project generated a lot of PR in the media and got many awards, in Belgium as well as abroad.

Last but not least, VW EscapeTV also gave birth to Emocion TV for Seat (http://www.emocion.tv), a sister project that goes even further in user generated content and “word-of-mouse” effect: submit a project of party on the Emocion website and, if your idea got a majority of votes, you will be granted a 500 euros budget to make it in real life. A team from Emocion TV will follow you to shoot your “performance” and will air the result on the official website. Enjoy the ride!