What midlife crisis?
19th Sep 2007
By Chris Tomlinson
Although I have my own YouTube channel, a Flickr account, write a blog and actually know what a Wiki is, I’ve started to worry that I many no longer be ‘down’ with the internet kids.
Sunday saw the dawn of my 44th year on this planet and the fact I enjoyed the day on my newly acquired allotment confirmed to me that I was indeed loosing touch.
Naturally, I turned to the internet for help, as most people with embarrassing medical problems do.
Luckily I found the excellent website of the Midlife Crisis Retreat (www.midlife-crisis-retreat.co.uk), sponsored by Volkswagen.
The website tells us that since Nigel Havers opened the centre in 1973, their aim has been simple: to cure men from an affliction commonly known as The Midlife Crisis.
Once they are cured they can get on with their lives, and most importantly start to appreciate the finely engineered Volkswagen Passat.
For those not familiar with the VW Passat, all you need to know is that it was voted ‘Towcar of the Year 2007’ by people who go caravanning.
On the website, you can take an anonymous test to see if you have the condition.
Questions include “Have you started using words like, Safe, Wicked, Dude or Awesome in the last few months?”.
Better still, if any of your similarly aged friends have recently taken up kite boarding or entered a triathlon despite a life dedicated to lethargy, you can send them a personalised video invite to the retreat.
You give the site their name and email address along with the type of activity they have recently been up to and a Nigel Havers look-alike contacts them to give them a good talking too!
This classic combination of online viral and word-of-month marketing showcases the internet at its best. The fact I’m blogging about it now is indicative of how seeding a website URL in the blogopshere can get your marketing message to an audience of thousands in a few days – thousands of men over 40 in this case!
The tiny VW logo on the website and scarce mention of the product lends authenticity to the spoof website.
Even better, there is no need for the site to list the merits of the Passat. The objective here is not to directly sell cars, but to gain a valuable mailing list of men whose friends think they might be having a midlife crisis.
Gaining personal information from an online audience, increasingly cynical about handing over these details to corporations, is difficult.
But this site avoids that by getting peoples friends to volunteer their personal information for them!
Meanwhile this website has endeared me to the VW brand and definitely helped me at my time of crisis, or at least in determining if I’m having one.
I may have an allotment, but don’t own a Passat yet dudes, so 44 is still just a number to me.
Chris Tomlinson is Head of Digital at WAA.
Gareth Brown commented 8 months ago
You need a face book account.. and when you get one ill know im past it ;)