Volkswagen Golf GTi 35th anniversary event

DDB UK and Volkswagen announced the availability of the Golf GTI Edition 35 in theUK with a new campaign that celebrates 35 years of the much loved and iconic model by turning it into a ‘time machine’ and sending it back through the decades.

The online and experiential campaign launched in October with a live event staged at the Truman Brewery in East London, and hosted by TV presenter and racing driver Amanda Stretton. Spectators watched as two engineers clambered into the GTI ‘time machine’ and accelerated towards a wall, only to see it vanish in front of their very eyes and apparently reappear at Volkswagen’s German headquarters in Wolfsburg in 1976.

The event has been made into a viral film which is being broadcast on the Volkswagen UK Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/VolkswagenUK) and seeded to a wide range of blogs and websites. 

However, the event itself marks only the beginning of the journey; over the next four weeks, fans will be able to follow the story of the Golf GTI and its two intrepid engineers on Facebook as they make their way back through the decades, dropping in on a range of historic moments along the way. Their adventures will be documented through a series of daily posts from the front line of time travel – a mix of film footage, competitions and photographs. 

The campaign has been created by DDB UK with the live event and videos produced by Passion Raw.

 Jeremy Craigen, Executive Creative Director, DDB UK commented: “What I love most about this campaign is that we have avoided being unduly reverential when it comes to marking this milestone in the history of Volkswagen’s most iconic car; instead, the campaign is both irreverent and totally inclusive – two characteristics that are entirely in keeping with the original philosophy behind the GTI.”

Nigel Brotherton, National Communications Manager at Volkswagen said: “What we love about the GTI time travel campaign is that it not only reflects the unique personality and heritage of the brand but our creative relationship with DDB. The event perfectly celebrated the heritage of our much loved GTI, while warmly welcoming the new Edition 35 to theUK.”

14 November 2011