Call in the dogs?

Volkswagen is running this very eye-catching, conversation-piece of a commercial.

The commercial is indeed cool, clever, original and well done. It is hard not to watch it multiple times. It’s difficult to not share it with everyone you know and to contribute to the “How did they do that, anyway?” buzz that it is generating. And to see my preschool son laugh like he does when it comes on is very rewarding. It’s a well produced piece of work and will likely win several awards in 2012.

But NONE of that matters if ultimately it doesn’t help sell more Volkswagens. If this campaign doesn’t pay for itself, it’s not GOOD marketing.

Granted, it may be a component part of an overall strategy that leads Volkswagen into a whole new era. The first step in the marketing communication is, after all, to grab the ATTENTION of the target market, and if those are the intended results of this stage of the campaign, then they may indeed be barking up the right tree…Sorry, just had to give that one a try!

Anyhow, Volkswagen promises an explanation during the upcoming Super Bowl, so we’ll see…