Volkswagen’s Citi was a
South African icon.
It was the best-selling car in South African history and an irreplaceable part of our culture. So in 2009, when Volkswagen announced that the car would be discontinued, it was heartbreaking news for thousands. We were briefed to create a farewell campaign for the car.
We gave the whole nation a chance to say goodbye to the car and sign it. Like a big farewell card.
Rather than saying goodbye to the car on behalf of South Africa, we decided to create a way for South Africans to say goodbye to the car for themselves. In November 2009, we took the last Citi ever made and set out on a journey around South Africa.
We travelled
5000 km across South Africa.
We tracked the whole journey live from a website, opened social media pages so that people could say goodbye online and finally, parked the car in the Volkswagen Museum, where it will stand forever, covered with goodbye messages.
Over 7000 people signed the car in just
11 days on the road.
And South Africa got the closure it deserved.
The 3rd last Citi sold for 3 times its market value in a charity auction from our website – a record for an online charity auction in SA.
We then took all the footage from our epic road-trip and created a commercial for national television.
