
Volkswagen is a power player when it comes to the vehicle industry – indeed, its Golf and Beetle have been crowned bestsellers. The German firm is also the owner of Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Seat and Skoda.
And it’s the latter that took marketing to new heights, quite literally, when it flew Real Business to Inverness for the launch of its new Skoda Superb line, which goes on sale in the UK in September. Departure took place from the private Harrods terminal at Luton Airport and the scene was set when boarding the private jet to Scotland’s west coast, which came complete with a glass of champagne. Upon arrival at Inverness Airport, a chauffeur was waiting beside a new Superb and proceeded to whisk us off to our destination – a place he said no more about beyond calling it “Skodaville”. Of course, that titbit was meaningless and could have simply been a nickname given to the hotel by the marketing team – except it came to light we weren’t staying in a hotel. True to his word, we had indeed arrived at “Skodaville – A Superb Place To Be”. You’d be well within your rights to think Skoda owned this particular plot of land, given that the estate was filled with the brand’s signage and cars. However, this spot of property development was just for one week only, solely for the launch of the Superb. Although on private land and owned by a hotel, the street looked like a real world neighbourhood, with each home – or “lodge” as team Skoda referred to them as – even sporting a mailbox, all of which were fitted exclusively to set the mood. Speaking to Real Business about how the concept came about, Skoda’s media relations manager Krystyna Kozlowska said the final result wasn’t what they had originally set out to do.Moving into a brand-owned village was a first #Skodaville @Real_Business pic.twitter.com/PETpxHBFuU
— Zentertainment (@ZenTerrelonge) July 23, 2015
“We looked in the main building and thought it was very nice and the main room itself, the reception area, had such a feel of Skoda about it – unconventional with a twist. But the rooms upstairs were a little bit olde worlde and not quite so in keeping with the brand and the car.” However, a visit to the lodges, which were originally intended for Skoda support staff during the campaign, suddenly brought about another idea. “We thought ‘could we turn this on its head and create Superb Street?’ ‘What would it be like if Superb was an actual place?’ And that’s where the whole idea stemmed from, almost by accident.” The name Skodaville was originally joked about, given the initial plan for the team to use the lodges, and from there it stuck. Kozlowska applauded her colleagues on the creative and event planning side of things, admitting it was a collective effort of bouncing ideas around that saw everyone buy into the concept.Read more about the car industry:
- Tailing motoring giant BMW’s race into the UK’s sharing economy
- Ford, Vauxhall, Volkswagen: How UK’s best-selling cars rose to success and plan to stay there
- What UK SMEs can learn from Jaguar Land Rover’s business strategy
While Inverness was new territory for Real Business, we couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a air of familiarity to the accommodation.
Share this story