The Last Mile
After 70 years, Volkswagen decided it was time to retire their beloved Beetle. This is one of many sacrifices VW has made to move toward an electric future.
The Beetle has played such a big role in so many people’s lives that we didn’t want it to leave the world quietly. So we set out to create a homage to the automobile that has shown up in culture numerous times throughout history, from it’s groundbreaking advertisements to featuring in movies such as Footloose, and purely being present during counter-culture moments in the 60’s like Woodstock.
We used an age-old technique of rotoscoping, a traditional technique that translated that warm affection of Bug owners and evoked nostalgia.
Finally, we made sure we invited everybody to Say G(o\!/o)bye to the Beetle at New Years and for 2020 hello to a new electric future.
Top Gear / Motor 1 / Highsnobiety / Creative Review
Hypebeast/ Adweek / AdAge / LBB / Muse / The Drum
See an Interview I did with Marketing Trendzhere. (Page 20-21)
Director: FX Goby, Nexus Studios
Brand: Volkswagen Beetle
Agency: Johannes Leonardo
Cofounder: Jan Jacobs, Leo Premutico
ECD: Jimm Lasser
CD: Laura Osborne
Creatives: Chris Luu, Brandon Holliday
Director: FX Goby
The Beetle was for the people, so we invited them to Say g(o\!/o)dbye in a user-generated effort on social media as an extension of the film.
Together with the hashtag #thelastmile, we were able to get Beetle fans involved by posting their memories on Instagram and reach a global scale organically. It was a pleasant surprise to see people’s Beetle memories go viral.
The case study here captures the integrated journey.
Here’s a little behind the scenes what we shot before we rotoscoped. Fun fact: the limited color palette is inspired by the original Beetle colors.