Best of Show: Volkswagen's Turbonium.com

"We didn't win Bronze, silver, or Gold first time out. We won Best of
Show. Suddenly, building a car web site didn't feel all that dorky
anymore."
-Tim Brunelle (Creative Director at Hello Viking) on Volkswagen's
turbonium.com

The story behind the award (as told by Tim Brunelle): "In 1999, we
were tasked with introducing the Turbo New Beetle, following the big
launch of the new New Beetle the year before. The creative direction
for Turbo was focused on a make-believe new element: Turbonium. About
two weeks prior to airing the TV spot, our creative director, Alan
Pafenbach, asked if maybe we could also develop a website—such a novel
idea at the time—to act as a companion marketing vehicle. Could we
build Turbonium.com? And wouldn't it be clever if we ended the TV spot
with the URL.

(Remember, this is 1999. Al Gore had only recently invented the
Internet.)

So, we've got two weeks. And there's this nifty new technology coming
of age: Flash. Our team consisted of myself, my creative partner Bill
Wehlan, Flash designer Robert Hodgin and developer Jon Groves. Go!

We presented the completed site to the client a day before the spot is
scheduled to traffic, along with the "end the spot with the URL" idea.
Fortunately, the client thinks this is nifty. The spot gets trafficked
to the networks, and the site gets loaded onto VW's servers.

A few months later, we get notice from the One Club that the Turbonium
campaign is a finalist—including the website in the very new One Show
Interactive competition. Cool!

We head down to the second annual One Show Interactive ceremony. We
win some pencils for other VW interactive work, including a Gold for
Turbonium.com. Then it's the end of the evening, and they announce
Best of Show: Turbonium.com. Suddenly, all the oxygen appears to have
left the room. It was like hitting a hole-in-one the first time you
play golf. Our team was stunned.

Back in Boston, the ad agency seemed stunned, too. Alan and our Chief
Creative Officer Ron Lawner were thrilled. But I recall a couple of
creatives questioning the victory. "It's just an interactive award."
As if Best of Show for Interactive wasn't the same achievement as Best
of Show for traditional work.

(Remember, this was 2000.)

I still get positive comments from people about Turbonium.com. It's
nice to know that site had such an effect on the industry. And it was
an honor to receive one of the very first One Show Interactive Best of
Show awards."

Tim Brunelle is CEO of Hello Viking, a new kind of advertising entity.
Hello Viking's work is a perfect example of how it takes truly 'new'
ideas to make innovative campaigns take off. Being a newer agency,
Hello Viking takes a vital role in growing the industry towards the
the possibilities of new media, and growing towards trends in
international markets as well.

Since Swanepoel is coming to speak about 'what it takes', there will
be a huge commentary on the development of the One Club's interactive
category, and the upcoming award category devoted to entertainment.

Say "Hello" to Hello Viking.