The German carmaker regained management duties for its Singapore retail business from local distributor Car & Cars in February.
The shift follows the shifting of VW's local creative to global agency DDB (Media, 17 October 2006). The account was formerly handled by Alchemy Partnership.
In its first major campaign for the brand, DDB Singapore pays tribute to earlier work created for VW by the legendary Bill Bernbach. The campaign uses the theme 'Think direct' and proposes that 'nothing comes between you and VW'.
The print-driven campaign is being executed using TV, radio, direct marketing and on-site media. Media buying and planning was handled by MediaCom. "The campaign carries a simple and endearing message in a market wary of traditional dealer arrangements," explained David Tang, president and CEO of DDB Singapore. "The work was executed in a style consistent with the traditional sense of VW innovation, and with a sprinkling of that unmistakable VW sense of humour."
VW aims to sell more than one thousand cars in Singapore this year, a 40 per cent increase over 2006.
Improvements from the direct dealership arrangement include faster turnaround times for car servicing, VW-certified sales staff and a revamped showroom, which reportedly cost over S$2 million (US$1.3 million) to develop. At press time, VW was also in takeover talks with Malaysian marque Proton in a bid to expand in Southeast Asia.
