Do you know how much effort and resources companies spend on organizing a mass event? Such that those who could not get there would bite their elbows with envy of all the participants. The most difficult thing here, perhaps, is choosing a suitable location, developing a reason and concept and mechanics for attracting guests. After all, a big festival is not just an event within one closed company. Here you have to gather in one place people with different views on life, different ages, family and social status, cheerful and not so cheerful. And the main thing is to enter their ranks as smoothly as possible, carefully removing the barrier of mistrust between the manufacturer and the consumer.
There is a simpler and more interesting idea - to enter a ready-made festival of brand fans. In this way, companies gain an already established history, the most loyal participants in the event, increasing this very loyalty - after all, the manufacturer, by his presence, highly appreciates the actions of the client, expresses gratitude for the choice of his goods and services and accepts the rules of the game, which are set not by him, but by the client.
Every car brand has its fans. They find each other, create websites and forums for communication, then the standard desire appears to see each other offline, then to share stories and photos online. This is how short meetings acquire new participants. Perhaps this is exactly how the iconic festival appeared in the Austrian town of Reifnitz on the shores of Lake Wörthersee. For 30 years now, thousands of Golf GTI fans have been gathering here in early June. They are joined by owners of other Volkswagen models, fans of related brands Audi, Skoda, Seat, and simply lovers of tuned cars and global holidays.
“A small and cozy resort, conducive to a calm and harmonious holiday.” This is how the websites of travel companies describe Reifnitz. Just not from June 1st to 4th. These days, even local residents are fleeing from here, having prudently rented out their houses to the “folk breeders” who came to the festival. However, some natives look forward to these days - some waiters earn an amount in these 4 days that they can live on for a whole year. Until the next GTI rally. It is difficult to calmly enjoy the local beauty - everything around is filled with people, cars and loud music.
In 2011 (according to some sources), 14 thousand people gathered for the traditional meeting on Wörthersee. Volkswagen management decided that the 30th anniversary festival was an excellent place to premiere its hottest new products: Golf GTI Edition 35, New Beetle Turbo, Golf Cabriolet R and Golf Cabriolet GTI. Skoda surprised everyone with its RS 2000 convertible, and Audi (rather modestly for a European premiere) presented the new Q3.
The Volkswagen brand fit into the festival beautifully - it created impressive entrance decorations, brought rare Golf racing cars and musical bands, held a lottery among the festival participants and even gave the winner a Golf GTI Edition 35, created in limited quantities for the 35th anniversary of the Golf GTI. The latter especially touched everyone; not only the newly-minted owner of a collector’s dream, but also the audience of the show cried with happiness.
A little earlier, the Russian Volkswagen Festival took place in the Moscow region. Its history is a little shorter (it was the fifth festival), there were much fewer participants (about 1000 cars), and no one organized world premieres here. But the growth rate of the movement attracted the attention of the Russian representative office of the Volkswagen brand, and this year it joined the event at the last moment: on one of the days of the festival, bright Scirocco arrived here with promotional staff and gifts. The participation of Russian Volkswagen in the event was of a guest nature, but both the brand and its fans liked the experience, so the company is already discussing festival plans for next year. They say it gets more and more fun every year.
