Volkswagen: Volkswagen – Side Assist Mirror Cards

Changing lanes is one of the biggest causes of accidents on Germany's roads. Therefore Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles invented Side Assist, which shows dangers in the driver’s blind spot via signals in the wing mirrors. This way, with just one look, the driver is able to recognise any danger behind or alongside the car. Grabarz wanted to communicate this feature to commercial vehicle drivers in particular, as this can be a lifesaver. Because the bigger the vehicle, the bigger the blind spot.

To both advertise and explain Volkswagen’s “Side Assist” at the same time, we demonstrated a simplified functionality of the system itself using a unique and surprising touchpoint: a simple flyer, attached to the wing mirror itself, allowed our target audience to experience better visibilty of dangerous situations with the very first advertisement that, just like the “Side Assist”, shows dangers in the mirror and lets drivers see more.

A simple piece of card inserted into the housing of wing mirrors turned out to be an extraordinary medium: What makes these cards special is the half-visible copy, which is only legible when viewed in conjunction with the mirror, letting the drivers see dangers they would not otherwise recognize. To target our audience exclusively and direct we attached the card to all commercial vehicles made by rival manufacturers parked near the dealerships of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicle Partners. So our message became very clear: Seeing only half of it is not enough.