VW launches new ID Buzz with simple yet sweet ads
This article originally appeared in CREATIVE REVIEW, June 6, 2023.
Creative agency Johannes Leonardo looked back to the original VW bus when creating the launch campaign for VW’s long, fully electric vehicle, the ID Buzz. Due to come out in 2024, it marks the ‘rebirth’ of the VW Bus in North America, which hasn’t been manufactured in 20 years.
The launch was teased in the week running up to the full reveal through digital OOH ads centring on the vehicle’s two-tone design, without showing the ID Buzz itself. Everything was then revealed in new OOH executions displayed in prominent locations such as Times Square in New York and downtown LA, as well as popular bus routes.
A sunny tone of voice forms the basis of the copy-centric ads, with simple yet sweet lines like ‘Missed the bus? Us too’, and ‘It’s back, its front, its side, its back again’, accompanied by relevant angles of the vehicle. The campaign harks back to the knowingly quirky voice of VW’s classic ads, though here the wording is less overtly oddball and more about puns and punctuation.
Motion was introduced to the campaign by creative studio Preymaker. The work won a D&AD Pencil in Design.