Volkswagen Amarok Press Tour

As part of subscriber PR cooperation with the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand, the Eventum Premo agency has repeatedly organized support for press tours for the Russian media. Over the past year, we have carried out as many as 16 additional projects, each of which has become a real event for the press: the Hannover Motor Show, the Frankfurt Motor Show, a test drive of the new T5 in Italy, an exclusive press tour to the Dakar Rally, a tour of the pre-premiere tests of the new Amarok in Cordoba (Argentina) and many others. The Amarok is the first Volkswagen pickup truck. Its target market is South America, but it's no secret that in Russia, a certain fashion for pickups is its own style, even more than the need to have a 1.5-ton cargo compartment. So, the brand "Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles" organized a large-scale run on the new Amarok on the roads of Argentina in Argentine Switzerland (as the Argentines themselves call this place) in the cozy and beautiful place of Bariloche. The "opportunity to steer" the novelty fell to the lot of 300 media representatives, including Russian journalists from top automotive publications: "Za rulem", "TopGear", "Autoreview", "Klaxon", "Quatroruote", "Avtomir", "Autopanorama", "Buy Auto", "5 Koleso", "All-Wheel Drive 4X4" and others. "Sharks of the Pen" proved to be real predators off-road with the habits of genuine racers, which became possible thanks to the technicality of the new Amarok. Active work on the road was replaced by no less active communication between the organizers and journalists during the press conference and as part of the dinner. It was a little unexpected for us (representatives of the Russian traditions of PR communications) when we were invited to dinner right from the podium and the sales director for Europe and the CIS countries sat down at the same table with us, and the chairman of the board of VW NFZ sat down at the next table with another group of Russian journalists. It is customary for us that after the press conference, journalists ask questions, and then the group of organizers separates and talks among themselves. Here, a different mechanic was used: the speaker himself came up and asked if he could join us, he himself began to talk about "secret prices", "secret facts", thereby creating fire in the eyes of journalists and making our dinner really interesting. I can say that it works great, but with two factors: – it must be a competent or authoritative representative (the communications director, who certainly developed a marketing strategy and created the concept of the presentation, unfortunately, is not suitable, a design engineer is better) – it should be a group of media of no more than 10 people, otherwise they start talking to each other and do not listen to the answers of the speaker/s, the discussion does not develop, and the speaker cannot keep the attention of all the participants. The program of the press tour assumed two free days, it was more of a necessity than a bonus for the tour participants, since the flight to Buenos Aires takes more than 24 hours. On one of the days, we provided free time and an evening visit to the best tango show in Argentina with dinner, and on the second day we arranged a tour of the city. Journalists travel a lot, and it is difficult to surprise them, but we managed to do it, both thanks to the test drive of the new model, and thanks to a carefully thought-out tour, during which they were able to see the beautiful city of Buenos Aires. After all, visiting Argentina does not mean seeing Argentina; unfortunately, this is most often the case with journalists. In addition to pleasant fatigue, everyone present had a storm of emotions and impressions, and the views of the picturesque place of Bariloche and Buenos Aires helped not only to emotionally "refresh", but also to experience the New Amarok in all its glory.