A creative and well-rounded viral marketing campaign: The Fun Theory

From time to time, there are a few marketing campaigns that is just so creative that you have trouble getting them out of your mind. One of the latest brilliant ideas is “The fun theory” an initiative by Volkswagen. Though it is not obviously connected to the cars they sell, or marketed in the old fashion way, this is a campaign that will be stuck in my mind for a long time.

It’s fun, it proves a point both while being produced and when later shown, and you get a few fun statistics to share with your friends after watching them.

The videos that went viral

It all got started when Volkswagen published three videos, the piano staircase, the bottle bank arcade and the world’s deepest bin.

Here are links to the other two:
The bottle arcade & the world’s deepest bin.

About the project

“The fun theory award recognizes those thoughts, ideas and inventions that help prove the fun theory. That fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better…” (From the fun theory website)

The whole project is based on a competition that gives people a chance to send in their fun theories and compete for a price of 2500 EUR. You can still send in your contribution as a written presentation with a visual picture of the idea. The later could be a sketch, a photo, or a film of a prototype. The competition is open until December 15, and then they will select 10 finalists that will be presented in front of a jury. Here you can see a few of the entries.

Multiple level marketing both viral and creative

This well rounded marketing campaign plays on so many levels:

1. When they did the videos, it most likely created a buzz from the people who tried the different theories.
2. First off all it is fun and visual, and easy to share.
3. The fact that it is a competition where money is at stake, means that many people take it with them after they leave their computer to discuss possible contributions to the competition.
4. As they keep posting new entries to the competition, people keep coming back to the website to check out other fun theories.
5. You can find the campaign in many places; their website, a Facebook group, twitter buzz and a youtube channel.

Volkswagens role

When you watch the movies, the Volkswagen logo only comes up on the last picture in the movie. Thus, they have chosen to not over use their logo in the campaign, which I think it an interesting move. As most brand do not seem to be able to create anything without their logo being on display.

While watching the movies, most people will wonder who made them, because they are done professionally.  I think that people will unconsciously appreciate that there is not brand name embedded in the movie.

Volkswagen is not flaunting their brand and let the brand “the fun theory” with logo be in the spotlight, and I think that this could increase the amount of people who will actually remember that Volkswagen was the initiators.

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