How Olivia Wilde and Johannes Leonardo Harnessed Female Authenticity and Energy for Volkswagen
Created with Johannes Leonardo, big-screen director Olivia Wilde’s talents are showcased in Volkswagen’s new campaign for its new SUV, the VW Atlas.
Unlike so many car spots, Johannes Leonardo and Olivia came together to champion storytelling and showcase the car through a different lens to what we’re used to – that of a young girl. By taking this original approach, the campaign celebrates the freedom of women and girls – a refreshing stance in a predominantly male-focused category.
LBB’s Teagan Gibson caught up with group creative director at Johannes Leonardo, Zoe Kessler to find out about why Olivia was the right fit for the message of the campaign and how this clever use of representation and creativity is important to the brand.
LBB> What inspired the concept for this campaign?
Zoe> The car! In a sea of sameness of the SUV market, VW stands out as it always has, offering product features and iconic design details that attract the classic non-conforming VW driver and family.
LBB> Why is the message of the campaign so relevant in society today?
Zoe> The message of the campaign feels less relevant than the content of the creative. Showing a little girl’s ingenuity and confidence in such an effortless and real way, particularly in the car space, makes the work feel breakthrough and stand out – very characteristic of the classic VW ads we’re used to seeing but not characteristic of the category.
LBB> Why is this message so important to the brand and what does it represent to you in terms of the direction Volkswagen is heading in?
Zoe> We loved the opportunity for the brand to behave in their advertising the way that they behave internally with product innovation. We want to continue to push the envelope on how to show up in marketing in a way that embodies the brand’s iconoclastic heritage.
LBB> Why did you choose Olivia Wilde to direct the campaign?
Zoe> Olivia has a keen eye for texture, colour and authenticity. Her experience as an actress herself and directing mostly features, we were excited to watch her hone in on the character’s motivation and bring a level of cinematic craft. It was also important to us to work with someone who had never made automotive work, as we didn’t want this to look like anything else in the category. Her being a woman, while important for us in our objective of creating something really fresh, was really the least interesting part of our decision to work with this brilliant filmmaker.
LBB> How did you ensure the campaign provided realistic representation?
Zoe> When you put a group of diverse voices behind the scenes in a room together to generate interesting and fresh creative advertising, you can almost always count on the work feeling authentic and real to the motivations of the characters they represent on screen.
LBB> Were there any challenges you encountered when creating the campaign, if so how did you overcome them?
Zoe> There was a fair bit of debate about how much car we really wanted to feature in the spot. The work is just as much about the kind of people that are attracted to the VW brand as it is about the product itself. Sure, we wanted to show off the 17 cup holders in the spot, but it’s really much more about how our hero uses that feature to add colour to her life. Not unlike the iconic VW spots from the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, we wanted the car to pay off the idea that doing things your own way is sometimes the best way. So having the car be the payoff and another character in the spot, rather than something that we needed to do a hard sell on with product features, was another way the spot would stand out and build that brand affinity we were hoping to achieve.
LBB> How has the overall reaction been to the campaign so far?
Zoe> Very positive! The authenticity and energy that this little girl emanates is absolutely electric. And our car, of course, looks beautiful, thanks to Olivia and our DP Chris Blauvelt. Our choice of music is also very deliberate. We love this unusual choice and think it brings a really specific sophistication to the work that could otherwise have leaned a bit saccharin or cute given the content of the film.
LBB> What impact do you think this female-led campaign will have on future campaigns with Volkswagen?
Zoe> From a creative perspective, JL will continue to work alongside VW to prioritise diverse and underrepresented voices in this space because it simply makes for the very best and freshest output. The success of this work is no surprise to us; Something magical always happens when you empower voices that don’t normally get a place in the spotlight. We can’t wait to continue working with interesting new creative talent, behind the camera and on our agency team.
