First debuting in silhouette on Oprah, the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle has utilized social media to create amazing online buzz for itself long before its impending release. Video has been its most successful medium, as it best captures the new visual form of the car that has gotten enthusiasts in such as uproar.

Anatomy

1) Its Black Beetle commercial, which first aired during the 2011 Superbowl has garnered over 4,000,000 views on YouTube. The Making of the “Black Beetle” Commercial has garnered over 360,000 views. This shows the social media impact that the Superbowl truly holds. Not only do tons of people watch it just for the commercials, but they talk about, compare, and rate them for weeks afterwards. For the Black Beetle commercial this created numerous blog mentions, including several on Mashable, and resulted in the millions of views on YouTube. 2) The Beetle’s mysterious appearance on Oprah reverberated throughout the web. Shrouding the beetle in mystery when the PR and advertising campaign was first launched created mass discussion all over the internet on people’s thoughts of what the new Beetle would look like and how it would compare to the old one. Great online marketing and PR is inherent on having great discussion points. By letting out information slowly and deliberately VW kept the discussion going for many months instead of simply giving away all of the information upfront and being discussed for a day. 3) The VW Beetle Blog has created a centralized place for fans to find out all of the most current information on the new Beetle. The blog began on March 1^st, 2011 detailing the impending release of the new Beetle and personal stories of Beetle owners. It then moved on to discussing the secretive aspects of the car and the media coverage surrounding it before finally giving it all away. It helped to create a coordinated, multi-channel marketing effort on the social web for consumers to interact in the ways that they want to. 4) VW has been interacting heavily with fans through its @VW Twitter handle. Anytime someone tweets the #VWBeetle hashtag the @VW team is quick to respond. This has resulted in even more people tweeting the hashtag in hopes of getting to talk personally with VW and get in on the discussion about the new Beetle. Being accessible via Twitter like this is one of the easiest ways that large corporations can humanize their brand and engage in effective customer relations. Go to www.wishpond.com/merchants to build your own Facebook Store that syncs directly with your website or POS.