Johannesburg, 26 June 2023 – Volkswagen clinched two awards at the recent Cannes Lions Awards – a Bronze award in the Outdoor category and a Silver award in the Industry Craft category for the Blind Spot campaign.
With the support of creative agency Ogilvy South Africa (SA) the campaign submission was amongst 26,992 entries received from across the globe, with only an average of 4% being selected to the shortlist.
In the Industry Craft category for Art Direction only eight pieces were awarded and Volkswagen got Silver, the company attained Bronze in the Ambient Outdoor category where only three pieces were awarded. “We are extremely proud of this achievement and commend our creative agency, Ogilvy SA for creating such an award-winning piece,” said Bridget Harpur, Head of Marketing: Volkswagen Passenger Cars. “More importantly we are ecstatic that our message about road safety awareness is being heard.”
South Africa has one of the highest road accident rates in the world with 14 000 deaths each year. Many of these involve objects in the blind spot. “Volkswagen has a solution, the Blind Spot Monitor. This is one of many innovative features in the IQ.DRIVE safety system. To bring this to light, we launched a campaign that people never saw coming,” explained Harpur.
Alex Goldberg, Creative Director at Ogilvy SA said Volkswagen wanted to demonstrate that “The People’s Car” is putting people first by intelligence safety systems (IQ.DRIVE) with everyone in mind, and raising awareness of those most at risk on the road. Not just Volkswagen drivers.
“We created a series of life-size installations featuring objects that would commonly be found in your blind spot – motorcyclists and cyclists. Using a specialised paint called Black 3.0, a paint so black it absorbs light and turns objects practically invisible, we made the objects disappear and launched them during #MotorcycleAwarenssMonth, which was held in May.
“Upon inspection, onlookers could then scan the installation using an augmented reality (AR) filter to reveal the object and find out more about Blind Spot Monitor, as well as the other safety systems available through IQ.DRIVE,” said Goldberg.
Cyclists and bikers are the most at risk, with accidents involving food delivery drivers increasing by 30%. “We are dedicated to creating a safer journey for all, we need to raise road safety awareness, improve brand sentiment, and drive consumers to find out more about VW’s IQ.DRIVE safety system with Blind Spot Monitor,” Harpur added.
Volkswagen was amongst the first winners announced in the 70th edition of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity held in France.
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Viola Ncube: Director of Sales & Marketing – IHG;Founder-IROCK!UK: Viola Ncube is a senior global Business, Sales and Marketing executive who, to date, has opened 11 hotels globally in London, Belfast, New York, Chicago, Miami, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beirut and Bangalore.Ncube founded IROCK!UK, an accredited social enterprise providing mentoring and training for young people, especially (but not exclusively) to those of Afro-Caribbean origin. This demographic is given access to life and employability skills that lead to either valuable work experience or paid employment. Ncube has global experience working in the USA, China, Beirut, Africa and Europe.