The Problem
Volkswagen needed to reframe the Touareg in the minds of Guardian readers — not just as a car, but as a statement of forward-thinking design and technology. Affinity and purchase consideration were the goals, requiring content that felt editorially credible rather than advertorial, while giving VW enough brand presence to justify a $500K spend.

My Role
Campaign delivery: led a cross-functional team of up to 30 across a 10-week $500K campaign, delivering an illustrated AR cover wrap (Shazam-triggered), 4 videos, 2 photo galleries, 5 digital articles, a print DPS, social media promotion, native advertising, and A/B-tested VW branded roadblocks. Produced weekly KPI reports tracking performance across digital, video, and social.

Pivoting under pressure: when VW restricted access to their engineers mid-campaign, blocking a key content strand focused on car technology, I worked with the media agency to quickly realign scope — repurposing brand-light digital content into print, renegotiating deliverables, and redirecting focus to the video and AR work where KPIs were strongest. Cost savings were passed back to the client.

Unblocking delivery: when a Commissioning Editor went quiet on a critical content strand, I proactively sought face-to-face time to surface the issue — a writer blocked from accessing VW engineers. I stepped in to facilitate communications directly between the writer and the client, keeping two articles on track and making a clear call to cut three that were no longer viable.

The Outcome
965K+video views — exceeding KPI.
64K unique users.
Dwell time +34% above Guardian benchmark.
19% more likely to purchase among those who recalled campaign.
2,970 Facebook shares.
905 Shazam downloads.