Last Friday Volkswagen announced the purchase of Diconium and we told about this strategical movement to our readers on Eastwind Marketing (Spanish edition). Today the German automotive company has unveiled a deep digital transformation plan aimed to enhance their marketing efficiency by around a 30% by 2020.
The efficiency plan includes, among other things: pushing digital investment share in their media mix to the 50%, less agencies in their pool, more creative pieces in each campaign, concentrating marketing operations in four marketing headquarters, direct digital communications with customers and developing new digital marketing platforms allowing the brand establish personalised conversations with them.
The German automotive company has also announced a deep brand image and logo revamp that will probably be launched in Spring 2019.
Jürgen Stackmann, Sales Manager of the Volkswagen Brand Executive Committee, said: “The brand will be managed more efficiently and centrally. With the new collaborations, we will reach an unprecedented innovative potential in marketing. Thanks to our more concentrated agency environment and the expansion of our digital activities, we will be significantly more efficient. The extensive transformation of Volkswagen, which will also be evident to our customers next year with the world premiere of our ID, will fundamentally change our marketing. ”
Jochen Sengpiehl, Marketing Director of the Volkswagen Consummer Vehicles brand, said: “Thanks to our new sales model, in the future we will be able to communicate directly with the customer. In the past, direct contact depended on a large extent on the sales network. In the future, we will achieve a far higher degree of personalization before”
Omnicom, WPP and Cheil will work together with the Volkswagen team in four marketing hubs
In the future, the Volkswagen will reduce their global network from about 40 agencies to three leading agencies. Omnicom Group will take the lead in Europe and South America, WPP will be responsible for North America and Cheil will continue to manage the Volkswagen brand in China.
Starting in 2019, Volkswagen will concentrate its marketing activities in these regions around four new marketing headquarters, which will be established in Berlin, New York, São Paulo and Beijing.
Between 100 to 200 people will work ion each of these four hubs on campaigns in an integrated and multifunctional way, developing content from strategy to execution and distribution. This approach is aimed allow the development of true global campaigns for the first time.
Digital investment rise with no media budget increase and more creative pieces per campaign
Instead of increasing the budget for media, Volkswagen will keep it at € 1.5Bn each year but the digital quota in the media mix will go up to the 50% by 2020. In 2015, investment in digital media reached a 25% share in Volkswagen media budget.
In a context where personalization of strategies to reach customers is becoming a must have, the number of campaign elements, such as movies or advertising, will experience a five fold increase.
Changes in four main areas: Product, digital platforms, brand platforms and brand design
In the product area, the main issues for 2019 will be the eighth generation of the Golf and the ID. Both cars will be fully connected, allowing direct digital services to be enjoyed by the users.
In addition, Volkswagen plans to launch new digital platforms such as the online sales platform for digital services “We”, or the digital delivery service “We Deliver”.
Volkswagen and Diconium are developing a sales platform where customers can buy and manage services on demand for their connected vehicles. The brand expects to receive circa 360 million visits to its global web page just in 2020, which means a 70% increase over the visits registered in2015.
New brand platforms, such as the alliance with the DFB and UEFA, will also demand new marketing approachs. An updated image design will revamp and modernize the the brand next year, problably starting next Spring.
Direct communication with clients: Customer digital identity , AI and data
In the future, direct communication between Volkswagen and their customers will be managed through a new digital personal identity, which will be introduced together with the new sales system as of 2020.
This will allow building an holistic and tailored customer experience with Volkswagen, through all the contact points with the clients, also in the marketing field.
The analysis and use of market and consumer data, as well as the deployment of artificial intelligence and highly advanced digital tools, will play a key role in this new customer experience.
Image above the headline.- The ID R Pikes Peak, Volkswagen electric racing car prototype. © Volkswagen.
Related Eastwind Marketing links (Spanish edition):
