VW activated its rights as an official sponsor of Uefa Women’s Euro 2022 via an on-pitch stunt and social campaign called ‘Tiny Buzz Car’, based around a miniature remote-controlled car delivering the official match ball for kick-off and a ‘humanised’ social media campaign.
Territory: Global
Agency: Tribal Worldwide
Objective
The official Uefa automotive partner sought to capture fan attention, generate social engagement and spark both tournament and brand-related conversation to evolve the brand’s positioning from being technical and functional to being more human and more approachable. It also sought to drive pre-launch awareness of the new 2022 VW ID BUZZ electric van.
Activation
VW’s Uefa Women’s Euro 2022 activation followed in the footsteps of its Men’s Euro 2020 tournament marketing which took place during summer 2021 and the campaign, which was developed with agency Tribal Worldwide, revolved around a miniature, remote-controlled electric car’s on-pitch appearances.
The vehicle, called ‘Tiny Buzz’, made its debut immediately ahead of the opening game kick-off at Old Trafford (on July 6), when host nation England took on Austria, and took its final bow at the final at Wembley (on July 31) when England defeated Germany.
‘Tiny Buzz’ delivered the official match ball before the kick-off and then went on to interact with fans through its own humanised Twitter and TikTok accounts which developed a perky personality for the little vehicle which aimed to establish a fresh tone of voice for the brand – compared to other, traditional VW accounts – and thus evolve VW’s positioning into a more approachable and human brand.
The approach and content strike a noticeably different tone of voice from other VW accounts and communication.
The agency social team worked in tandem with tournament organiser Uefa and VW UK marketing teams to celebrate, discuss and share key tournament moments – from game footage and player images to the miniature vehicle’s on and off-pitch actions – all featuring the distinctive ‘Tiny Buzz’ tone of voice.
For the final itself, the agency’s team of community managers and social media managers live-tweeted as they reacted in real time to the key match moments.
@tinyfootballcar My first appearance at EURO2020. 🤩 #tinyfootballcar #football
@tinyfootballcar It’s finally coming home! Can I carry the trophy? 🏆- Tiny Buzz 🚐 ⚡️ #WEURO2022
So, does that make me a legend?🥺 #WEURO2022 @WembleyStadium
– Tiny Buzz 🚐⚡️ pic.twitter.com/soWoAb9e0O
— Tiny Football Car⚡️ (@TinyFootballCar) August 3, 2022
The pitch is ready. The stage is set. Good luck to the @Lionesses and @DFB_Frauen! Let's go!!⚽👀 #WEURO2022 #ENGGER #Wembley
– Tiny Buzz 🚐⚡ pic.twitter.com/u3uHoVbfJe
— Tiny Football Car⚡️ (@TinyFootballCar) July 31, 2022
The ‘Tiny Buzz’ campaign ran in parallel with VW’s umbrella, multi-channel #NotWomensFootball campaign, which activated both its Uefa partnership and its sponsorship of the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB) and which rolled out through the tournament.
“After the huge success of Tiny Football Car at Uefa Euro 2020 last year, introducing Tiny Buzz at Uefa Women’s Euros is an exciting next step to build on the momentum of the campaign,” explained VW UK marketing communications lead for EV, Rhidian Taylor. “We saw extensive engagement across Twitter and TikTok and are looking forward to seeing this continue to grow.”
Tribal Worldwide head of social Vanessa Hartley added: “We’re very proud of the results Tiny Football Car achieved last year, with this latest campaign giving us another opportunity to further develop conversations with audiences all around the globe. Tiny Buzz has already built a strong online fan base surrounding the Uefa Women’s Euros — and we’re delighted to be building an engaged community with such a fun campaign.”
Outcome
Through the tournament ‘Tiny Buzz’ amassed 24,000 followers on Twitter and 550,000 followers on TikTok, generated more than 8,000 ‘mentions’, 5.4m ‘likes’ and 15.9m ‘impressions’.