Increase the VW Routan Boom - Keyword Phrase “Brooke Shields”
Written by Leif Cefalo (contact - e-mail) -- October 15th, 2008 |
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Commercials for the new Volkswagen Routan starring Brooke Shields began hitting the airwaves in mid-September and peaked this past weekend, according to TNS Adscope. I don’t know about you, but I spent many hours in front of the TV with the Red Sox playing every day except Sunday, with the Patriots filling that gap, and I certainly had had enough of this commercial by the end of Monday night’s game. However, I guess the ad, which correlates a baby boom with the vehicle launch, served its purpose; to drive people to the new Routan microsite, routanboom.org.
I wondered if these ads in tandem with a microsite are really drawing people in so I took a look at daily visitation to this site. While I was surprised to see that it appears VW has not bid on the keyword phrase “Brooke Shields,” as I would think this would only increase traffic to both sites, it does in fact appear that these ads have had an impact. We can see significant spikes at ad-launch and during this past weekend. Important to note as well is the fact that routanboom.org was the 9th ranked site in driving traffic to vw.com in September. This should only increase in October as ad spends increases.
So what’s the lesson learned? Is it that repetitive ads spotlighting Brooke Shields are that captivating? I think not. While there may be some small truth to that, like when you find yourself humming that product theme song of a commercial you hardly remember seeing, I don’t think that’s the answer. Rather, I think ads starring current celebs placed during enormous viewing audience events coupled with their own microsites are the key. When virtually everyone has internet access easily at their disposal, if not on their cell phone, a microsite will generate the biggest boom.
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October 16th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Captivating she certainly is, but I think the blitz has more benefits with branding than actual traffic. It is slightly annoying to watch the same ad over and over again, but that’s what stamps it in your mind.
October 16th, 2008 at 8:24 am
VW has committed this oversight before. On the day that introduced the Routan, and for weeks after, searching for “VW Routan” on Google, Yahoo, etc. returned ZERO official results from VW.com - organic or paid. Instead, all of the page 1 search engine results were from professional automotive sites (Cars.com, etc.) and VW enthusiast sites such as VWVortex.com.
VW seems to lack a cohesive search engine strategy.
November 2nd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
I am disappointed in Brooke and Volkswagen. These are some of the worst commercials ever! They aren’t funny.They bring up reminders of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. Certainly there are many children born for the wrong reasons but for a car? What a poor concept!
Bring back Dustin Hoffman!! Brooke should be ashamed of herself. It makes me think she was way over paid to do such horrible ads.
November 8th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Nancy, it’s a joke! It’s meant to sell cars. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:52 am
I totally agree with Nancy on this absurd commercial. This is NO JOKE, Bob. If you know anything of the holocaust, you would understand why. I see absolutely nothing here to joke about, and if I were in the market for a new vehicle it would certainly not be this one!!
As a mother, Brooke Shields should be ashamed and might well be if she would simply inform herself of this atrocity.
November 24th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Routan is made by chrysler and has very litlle do do with VW, or as much as Honda Passport had to do with Honda.
December 18th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
i’ve seen this brooke horror 1 time.i was so offened by it.nothing funny about a nazi! she should feel ashamed of herself!
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