Volkswagen Amarok press tour in Argentina and new PR techniques

About the project

As part of the PR partnership with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Eventum Premo organized a number of press tour support for the media. In the past year 2009, we carried out no less than 16 additional projects, each of which became a real press event – namely, Hanover Motor Show, Frankfurt Motor Show, e new T5 test drive in Italy, exclusive press tour to the Dakar Rally, tour to the premiere tests of the new Amarok in Cordoba (Argentina), and many more.

Amarok is Volkswagen's first pickup truck. Its target market is South America, but it is common knowledge that there is a fashion for pickups in other countries – and people value their style over the need to have a cargo compartment of 1.5 tons.

So, the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand organized a large-scale run on the new Amarok through the “Argentinian Switzerland” (as the Argentines call this place) in and around a cozy and scenic town of Bariloche.

300 media representatives, many of them being employed with top automotive publicatiosn, were able to lay their hands on a novelty car and drive it. The “media tribe ” immediately contributed to the event – and proved to be real off-road beasts demonstrating genuine racers’ skills – due to the technicality of the new Amarok. Road race activity gave way to even more active communication between the organizers and the journalists at the press conference and the dinner. This was a bit unexpected for us to be invited directly from the rostrum to the dinner; the Sales Director for Europe and the CIS sat at the same table with us; we were seated at the next table with another group of Russian journalists, and the VW NFZ Board Chairman. We decided that the journalists would ask questions after the press conferecne, and then a group of organizers would separate and talks to each other. Another mechanic was also applied there: the speaker could come up in person and aske if (s)he could join us, and then fall into a talk about the “secret prices” and “secret facts”, thus keeping the journalists excited and making our dinner really interesting. I can say that it worked great, with two provisions:

- A competent or authoritative representative was supposed to be present; while the Director of Communications would certainly be able to develope a marketing strategy and the presentation concept, a design engineer would be better.

- A group of media representatives, not exceeding 10 people, was supposed to be present to moderate the talks; without them, the talk groups would break up, the participant would form smaller groups, ignoring answers from the speakers; the discussion would stall, and no speaker would be able to hold the attention of all of the audience.

The program of the press tour involved assignint two free days; it was more a necessity than a bonus for the tour participants, seeing that a flight to Buenos Aires takes more than 24 hours. On day one, we assigned free time and an evening visit to the best tango show in Argentina with dinner, and on day two, we arranged a tour around the city. Journalists travel a lot, and, therefore, aren’t easily surprised; yet, we succeeded in keeping them amazed – both thanks to the test drive of the new model, and thanks to a carefully thought-out tour, during which they were able to see the beautiful city of Buenos Aires. After all, visiting Argentina does not mean seeing Argentina; unfortunately, this typically is true for journalists.

Tired but happy, every participant experienced a storm feelings of and impressions; the views of the picturesque town of Bariloche and Buenos Aires not only left everyone emotionally “refreshed”, but also provided them with and unforgettable experience of the New Amarok in all its glory.