Male & Agency Opps: Volkswagen launches sponsorship campaign with the US Women's National Team (Score 60)

Sales Lead: Volkswagen recently became a sponsor of and launched a campaign with the US Women's National Team's soccer players.

• Made by Johannes Leonardo, the campaign shows the parallel between the USWNT and its new Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport vehicles.
• It shows that the team's stars and the new vehicles are "Anything but Ordinary."
• The campaign will roll out during the World Cup on Fox and Telemundo along with paid social work, digital banners, podcast integrations with top soccer shows from The Athletic, and various organic social content across Volkswagen's channels.
• The company will likely:
  • Continue pursuing new sponsorship opportunities
  • Keep increasing spend
  • Conclude its ongoing media review and potentially make additional roster shifts (more below)
• Target demographic: 
  • ​​​​​​​A wide but male-skewed audience ranging from Gen-Z through Gen-X

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: Since the beginning of 2023, Volkswagen has spent approximately $43.7m on national TV commercials, up 51% from the approximately $29m spent within the same 2022 timeframe.
  • Last year: The company spent about $78.7m on this channel last year after having spent 27% more, about $99.6m, in 2021.
  • 2023 ad programming: Volkswagen's 2023 commercials have targeted shows such as the 2023 Pro Bowl Games, the 2020 NBA All-Star Game, the Allstate Sugar Bowl, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and the 2019 Home Run Derby.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: The company has allocated roughly $12.9m on digital ads YTD, 52% more than the roughly $8.5m allocated by this point last year.
  • YTD data: So far this year, Volkswagen has earned around 1.3b digital impressions via YouTube (54%), Instagram (24%), Facebook (17%), desktop video (2%), desktop display (2%), and mobile display (1%) ads.
  • Last year: In 2022, the company's estimated full-year spend decreased by 36% to $23.6m from that of $36.9m in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • Along with the aforementioned channels (i.e., print), Volkswagen utilizes Google Ads along with digital, local broadcast, radio, OOH, print, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and online video (via Youtube.com, Youtube Android, and Youtube IOS) ads.
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The company sponsors podcasts such as The Joe Rogan Experience, CBC News: World Report, WSJ What's News, StarTalk Radio, and F1: Beyond The Grid.  
  • The company invests in short-form DRTV.  
    • I​​​​​​​t has incredibly highly concentrated network TV coverage and will not likely launch a new campaign soon.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Reach out to participate in Volkswagen's ongoing media review and keep it on your radar for other reviews once this one concludes.
• Current agency roster:
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Johannes Leonardo: Creative AOR
  • PHD USA: Media AOR (2016)
  • CreativeOndemand: Creative and multicultural AOR
  • EssenceMediaCom: Media agency partner
  • WPP Group: Creative agency partner (December 2018)
  • H&S Communications: PR agency partner

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser; DRTV insights by Media Analytics.