TLDR
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and Bernbach have renamed stretches of Australian road as theme park rides to sell the Walkinshaw-developed Amarok V6 W600. The Pacific Motorway becomes 'The Big Dipper' and Mount Panorama 'The Mountain', and an AI mapping tool sends drivers to routes near their dealer.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The idea
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is selling its new performance ute by turning Australia's roads into rides. Bernbach's 'Walkinshaw World' campaign, under the line 'Let's go for a drive', analysed hundreds of roads for their terrain and curves and themed them as attractions.[1]
Sydney's Pacific Motorway becomes 'The Big Dipper', Queensland's Gateway Motorway 'The Gold Coaster', Melbourne's West Gate Freeway 'The Highline' and Bathurst's Mount Panorama 'The Mountain'. The hero film offers a priority pass to rides including The Corkscrew, Croc River Rapids and Drop Bear's Drop.[1]
From ad to test drive
Bernbach built an AI mapping tool that finds suitable routes within a set radius of each Volkswagen dealership, shown on a live dashboard with Google Maps, and the team named and styled more than 100 attractions. Drivers can book a 'Test Ride' on a route near their dealer. The campaign runs nationally this month across film, targeted out-of-home and social, with PHD handling media.[1]
"Walkinshaw World is a creative way of celebrating the diverse roads Australians drive every day," said Michelle Rowney, head of marketing and product at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. "Australia has its fair share of roads but not that many theme park rides," said Bernbach creative director Steve Hey.[1]
The ute behind it
The Amarok V6 W600 was developed with Australia's Walkinshaw Group. It runs a 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel making 184kW and 600Nm through a 10-speed automatic, with bespoke KONI suspension and a 3.5-tonne braked towing capacity.[3]
The campaign sells the drive itself, and makes the dealership test drive the payoff.
SOURCES & CITATIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is Walkinshaw World?
Who made the campaign?
Can people drive the routes?
James Dore is founder and editor of Prompt the Market and Strategy Director at Bushnote, a Sydney strategy, SEO and AI search agency. He has a background in strategy, media and financial services, and led consumer product marketing at MONEYME. He writes on AI search, answer engines, technology policy and media economics.
