79% of Aussies experience some kind of driving anxiety. 59% of drivers avoid parallel parking because they are afraid that they might hold up traffic or that they might hit another car while doing the maneuver. Others have a horror of giant roundabouts, merging onto a four-lane highway, or of pedestrians. For them, these kinds of situations are simply a nightmare.

Based on this, DDB Sydney builds a campaign for automaker Volkswagen, showcasing the brand’s 2021 Tiguan and its IQ.DRIVE assistance system with features that include Front Assist, Pedestrian Monitoring, and Lane Assist. The car manufacturer admits that the road can be a scary place sometimes. But it shouldn’t be this way. To encourage people to overcome their fears, VW decided to address these experiences that send shivers down some drivers’ spines in a series of ads that pay “homage to the psychological horror genre.”

Volkswagen Australia Marketing Communications Manager, Rowena Kanna, said: “The research highlighted what we knew to be true, albeit anecdotally, which is that these little road stresses can quickly creep up to become genuine anxieties and fears,” explaining that they are confident that the initiative will “cut through in a cluttered SUV market.”

The brand joined forces with renowned movie poster artist Matt Ryan Tobin — who has worked with Disney, Marvel Studios, Warner Brothers, and 20th Television throughout his career — and turned road fears into horror movie posters. Centered on anxieties that appear when parallel parking, merging into a highway, entering giant roundabouts, and being petrified by distracted pedestrians, the illustrations follow visual motifs usually associated with this type of movie genre.

DDB Sydney Creative Directors, Tim Woolford and Tommy Cehak, said: “We’re not scared of driving. Although parallel parking makes us anxious. Actually, merging is nerve-racking… and we suppose people are pretty distracted by their phones these days, so that’s a worry…”

Accompanying the OOH posters is a 30-second-long video, directed by Revolver’s Bruce Hunt, carrying the viewers on a strange road where a man is about to enter a roundabout. His anxiety gets stronger and stronger as he is about to get closer to the roundabout, and the visual elements included in the videos — such as crows, night, mist — and soundtrack make the audience learn that something frightening is about to happen. But fear not, as while viewers learn that “the road can be a scary place,” drivers can “conquer [their] fears” with the new Tiguan.

The integrated campaign points out the fact that although driving requires total focus, the IQ.DRIVE assistance system of Tiguan can be a good companion that drivers can rely on while on the road. The initiative is part of the “Life feels better in a Volkswagen” platform and is running across TV, online, OOH, radio, and social with an interactive AR set to be launched later this year.

Credits:

Client: Volkswagen Australia

Marketing Communications Manager: Rowena Kanna

Brand Communications Specialist: Julie Scarff

Agency: DDB Sydney

Chief Creative Officer: Ben Welsh

Executive Creative Director – Matt Chandler

Creative Director: Tommy Cehak

Creative Director: Tim Woolford

Copywriter: Tom Lawrence

Art Director: Sam Raftl

Chief Strategy Officer: Fran Clayton

Planning Director: James Davis

Managing Partner: Mandy Whatson

Senior Business Director: Nicole Drabsch

Business Manager: Izzy Crohan

Head of Integrated Content: Renata Barbosa

Senior TV Producer: Natalie Greaves

Senior Print Producer: John Wood

Senior Designer: Paul Jansen

Senior Finished Artist: Jose Rodrigues

Production Company: Revolver

Post Production: Blackbird

Music: Turning Studios

Sound: Rumble

Poster illustrator: Matt Ryan Tobin

Media: PHD