Using a competition to give all those UK citizens who are 30 on this date the chance to win a new Golf, Tribal has developed a full online campaign including ads, an email campaign and a new microsite on the main Volkswagen site.
People can only enter the competition online at and the only offline support will be a radio campaign running during the same period to direct people to the Volkswagen site.
Anna-Louise Gladwell, senior account manager at Tribal, said: "The decision to use online to raise interest and awareness of the coming of the new Golf was taken for a number of reasons. Over 85% of the target audience for the new car are regularly online and it is the best format for launching competitions. Our search for the 1,800 or so people the UK census tells us will be 30 on January 30 lends itself well to online."
The online advertising will run on sites such as Friends Reunited, Lastminute.com, Guardian Unlimited and TimeOut.
The supporting email will target people between 25 and 35 and is
designed to look like any normal text email, rather than be creatively rich, to make it feel like a piece of viral communication and easy to forward on to others.
In addition, a partnership with Lastminute.com will include a feature on "30 things to do before you are 30".
According to Dave Bedwood, creative director at Tribal DDB, the creative has been designed to be intriguing and stand apart from traditional automotive advertising.
"The creative is quite unlike anything you'd expect from car advertising in that it makes absolutely no reference to the new car's features either through copy or visuals. In fact, we took the concept of sperm swimming to its destination 30 years ago with the caption 'Was this you? Were you born on 30th Jan 1974?' as we felt the humour of the ad would appeal to the age group and dramatise the fact that there are only a specific few who could actually win."
Catherine Woolfe, small cars communications manager at Volkswagen, said: "The competition and the campaign surrounding it is all part of the new Golf's launch campaign, which will centre on the fact that the Golf is 30 years old this year -- or '30 years in the making'. Over four previous generations, the Golf has racked up sales of more than 22m -- more even than the original Beetle."
The new Golf features the latest generation FSI petrol and TDI diesel engines, a new multilink rear suspension for more dynamic handling and notably improved cabin space.
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