Goodbye Citi shortlisted for a Cannes Lions 2010 Award
Sunday, 11 July 2010
Silver Bullet Productions, in association with Egg Films and Ogilvy South Africa, was recently shortlisted for a Cannes Lion for their work on the successful 'Goodbye Citi' campaign.
As millions of South Africans will no doubt remember, the day that Volkswagen first announced they were discontinuing the Citi Golf, after nearly 25 years of production, it marked a milestone in our country's history. For more than two decades, the Citi has served as the car of the people, and still remains, to this day, the best selling car in our country's history. It's a South African icon, with an undeniable place in our cultural history. The jingle alone had the nation humming, "Red, yellow, blue", well into the nineties.
It was, thus, an enormous challenge, after two and a half decades, to bring this sentiment to life, in an engaging way that Citi drivers, young and old, from across the country, could identify with. This was more than a car commercial, it was an opportunity to give South Africans a chance to say goodbye. With this in mind, the "Goodbye Citi" campaign was started. The idea was to take the very last Citi Golf on VW's production line for a road trip across the country, so that Citi drivers could sign their last goodbyes.
Four young South Africans were selected from different parts of the country as VW brand ambassadors, and their exploits captured, from the Cape to the Karoo, as they shared their stories online.
The event would be extensively documented and edited into short viral clips that would be uploaded that same day onto various web-based media platforms, including Facebook and Youtube, where people, following the journey could also participate, and post their farewell messages.
The biggest challenge was to capture all the real beautiful moments mostly out of a moving vehicle. All the daily film and photo memeries and experiences were then edited on the same day and then uploaded that night.
The campaign received a lot of attention, not simply locally but worldwide and became one of the most successful campaigns in Volkswagen SA'
