On April 18, 2011, Volkswagen celebrated the global reveal of the all-new 2012 Beetle, marking a new chapter in the iconic vehicle’s history. Just 18 days after becoming Volkswagen’s social media agency of record, Edelman Digital implemented a social media plan to support the Beetle reveal, with Twitter ad buys being an integral part of the execution. The #VWBeetle Promoted Trend was the most engaging advertising campaign ever on Twitter, generating more than 90 million impressions within 24 hours. Additionally, a Promoted Tweet generated a 53% rate of engagement. The Beetle reveal Twitter campaigns set all-time records for consumer engagement with the Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends products. On April 18, 2011, Volkswagen celebrated the global reveal of the all-new 2012 Beetle, marking a new chapter in the iconic vehicle’s history. The third-generation Beetle was revealed to the public in a spectacular world debut across three continents with events in Shanghai, China; Berlin and New York City. Just 18 days after becoming Volkswagen’s social media agency of record, Edelman Digital was on site at the reveal of the 2012 Beetle to execute a social media plan, with Twitter ad buys being an integral part of the execution. Objectives Edelman Digital engaged on Twitter and executed Twitter ad campaigns during the 2012 Beetle reveal to achieve the following objectives: • Amplify and increase the reach of the global reveal of the 2012 Beetle • Raise awareness, excitement and demand for the 2012 Beetle • Engage with consumers in real-time about the 2012 Beetle Strategy/Execution To accomplish the objectives of the campaign, Edelman Digital promoted content generated from the 2012 Beetle reveal event on Twitter and executed a Promoted Trend and Promoted Tweets campaign to extend the content’s reach. A Promoted Trend was planned for the day of the 2012 Beetle reveal event. Edelman Digital chose an easy-to-remember hash-tag that would allow people to join the conversation not just around the reveal news, but also in general dialogue. #VWBeetle was selected, and proved to be the right choice. Before the reveal event took place, consumers were already using the hash-tag, as they discussed their Beetle stories and memories. Once the car was revealed, the conversation quickly shifted to focus on 2012 Beetle. Additionally, to make the Promoted Trend as effective as possible, the team planned a series of five Promoted Tweets which were promoted throughout the 24 hour period the trend was live. The tweets were written to be fun, engaging and something consumers would want to retweet, all while including key messages for the 2012 Beetle. Since the Promoted Trend launched at 12am PST, a full seven hours before the car was revealed, a teaser-tweet was promoted to get consumers excited about the reveal moment the next day. Results Use of the Twitter Ad platform achieved the campaign objective of amplifying reach and generating awareness of the 2012 Beetle reveal. Results included: • The #VWBeetle Promoted Trend campaign was the most engaging advertising campaign ever on Twitter, generating more than 90 million impressions within 24 hours and setting all-time records for consumer engagement with Twitter’s Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends products • The Promoted Tweet, “The 21st Century #VWBeetle was just revealed. Check out the revolutionary new take on the iconic design at http://vwoa.us/hZdaLm," generated a 53% rate of engagement, the highest rate of engagement ever for a Promoted Tweet. More than half of the Twitter users who saw the ad engaged with it in some way by retweeting it, replying to it, favoriting it or clicking on the link • The success of the Promoted Trend was covered by Advertising Age: http://adage.com/article/digital/winning-twitter-top-10-promoted-tweets/227437/. • All of the Promoted Tweets associated with the campaign saw double-digit engagement rates. ● The trend campaign had a 44.4% engagement rate ● Volkswagen’s official Twitter channel, @VW, saw a 16 times increase in the number of daily follows, with 2,574 new followers on reveal day ● 15,000 mentions of #VWBeetle ● 57,000 clicks-through to the Beetle blog from Twitter, which housed all content from the reveal event ● 1,257 mentions of @VW (27x normal daily account mentions), 2,203 re-tweets and 208 @VW replies ● Conversation around the 2012 Beetle and #VWBeetle, was overwhelmingly positive
