A Star is Born: VW & The Confident Little Ram

Introducing the new “kid” on the block. He’s cool. He’s confident. He’s horny. A star is born (confident!)

I’ve got an admission to make – I’m in love. I’ve broken the news to my husband who took it quite well, although he drew the line at the focus of my affections moving in with us. His objection was that he’d eat us out of house and home (and garden). He also thought he’d be a bit of a liability around the house; he’s a horny little so-and-so!

So who is this chap who’s turned my head? Well, he’s the little goat from the new VW adverts. “Born Confident” is the strap line and our little guy has oodles of confidence as he overcomes a difficult birth to see off a sheepdog, a cow and a barn wall. But he meets his match with the new VW T-Roc SUV (as if!) See the advert here:

Now I’ve always had a bit of a thing for goats (don’t ask) and have numerous photos of the many we’ve encountered on our holidays in Kefalonia (see previous post and goaty-photo here). Goats in trees (yes, really), goats sunbathing on roads etc etc, but the VW goat is the cutest of the lot (and he doesn’t have that goaty pong which normally means you can smell a goat before you can even see it!)

Now my husband asked how they trained him to charge through the barn wall? And here’s the shocker – he ain’t real! He is a 100% computer generated goat. You could call him an e-goat, although his creators called him Bam (Baby Ram). There is an amazing video on Adweek showing the creation of Bam and the level of detail used which is especially fascinating to an industry outsider like me.

But just when I thought my admiration for VW and the creative team from adam&eveDDB had reached its limit, they then did something I’d never seen before (or maybe I just hadn’t been paying attention). They linked their VW print ads starring our little hero with adverts for other brands. So on Monday we had our little goat on one page of The Times advertising VW, but then walking across the page sporting a real cool pair of Gucci shades and invading an ad for Harvey Nicks. Then on Tuesday he’s being quite rude to a Walls ice cream!

Now, those of you in the industry may well shrug your shoulders and say “so what!” But I haven’t seen this sort of cross-over marketing before (and now I’ve read up about it apparently it is the first of its kind). And whilst I can see what VW are getting out of if it, I’m not sure of the motivation for Harvey Nichols and Walls. Unless they just have an excellent sense of humour and are happy being linked to our little cool dude. In which case all I can do is applaud their excellent taste.

I can’t remember the last time a marketing strategy so caught my attention (and yes, that includes the John Lewis Xmas adverts). I’ve just opened today’s Sunday Times to find our favourite goat sprawled across a four poster bed in an ad for Castle Howard. The adventure continues…

So, from a total civilian – hats off to VW, adam&eve DDB, Somesuch, MPC and all involved. And the good news is… apparently there are to be more linked adverts with Virgin Atlantic and Admiral, followed by more online films. I for one can’t wait.

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