What if Elis Regina came back to life to sing with her daughter, Maria Rita? Well, in the new Volkswagen advertisement, this really happened! As part of the celebration of its 70 years of history in the country, Volkswagen do Brasil presents its new institutional campaign, which had a “little help” from artificial intelligence to promote the reunion between mother and daughter.
To the sound of ‘Como Nosso Pais’, Belchior’s success immortalized in the voice of Elis Regina, mother and daughter performed, for the first time, an exciting duet through technology. Elis Regina, one of the greatest singers in the history of Brazilian music, passed away more than 40 years ago due to a cardiac arrest caused by the consumption of alcohol and drugs, while Maria Rita, heiress of her mother’s talent, is one of the icons of current MPB , and at the time he was only 4 years old.
The new Volkswagen campaign, which created this fictitious moment, begins with Maria Rita behind the wheel of the ID.Buzz, a 100% electric version of the Kombi. On the same road, Elis Regina continues driving the classic Kombi. Together, they sing Belchior’s song, showing that “the new always comes”. Meanwhile, some iconic classics of the brand appear in a wistful way, and the film ends with the message “Volkswagen, success that passes from generation to generation”.
In an analogy to music itself, revealing the generational transition, the campaign highlights, without ceasing to celebrate the past, the strengthening of Volkswagen do Brasil in the global strategy of electrification of the brand.
“Volkswagen do Brasil is committed to being a company that is increasingly human and close to people. And nothing is more exciting than promoting an unprecedented meeting between mother Elis Regina and daughter Maria Rita, two music icons who are in the hearts of Brazilians, as well as Volkswagen do Brasil, which this year celebrates 70 years of history and success in the country. With the campaign, we highlight the evolution of the brand and the renewal of its product portfolio by uniting the Kombi, an icon from the past, with the ID.Buzz, the 100% electric version of the model, which arrives in Brazil in a limited batch of 70 units”, comments the VP of Sales & Marketing at Volkswagen do Brasil, Roger Corassa.
To illustrate this moment, the recording of the reunion combines the transmission of a series of memories of classic and also popular Brazilian Volkswagen cars, such as the Gol, the Beetle, the Brasília and the SP2, in addition to the Kombi itself, with the new portfolio of brand, including the ID.Buzz and ID.4 all-electric models; T-Cross, Nivus and Taos, the SUVs with the highest safety rating; the pickup trucks; the Virtus, which is the newest sedan on the market; and Polo.
The choice to have the two great artists, synchronizing with the memory of several successes from different times of Volkswagen do Brasil, was precisely to revive and pay homage to the several remarkable generations of the country.
“Volkswagen do Brasil’s 70th anniversary campaign is a tribute to the arts of making music and automobiles, products that enchant and move people. This meeting of mother and daughter, in addition to being emotional, also reinforces the brand’s DNA in technology and innovation, bringing the use of trained artificial intelligence to perform Elis’s facial recognition. The combination of tools with the help of artificial neural network technology made it possible to create a perfect mix between the real face of the stuntwoman and the recreated image of Elis, with the singer’s original voice. This is a gift that Volkswagen offers in its 70th anniversary celebration: one of the greatest intergenerational meetings in music and automobiles. And only Volkswagen could provide this homage to Brazilians”, says Livia Kinoshita, executive manager of Marketing and Communication at Volkswagen do Brasil and SAM.
Meeting made possible by Artificial Intelligence
Created by the AlmapBBDO agency and produced by Boiler Filmes, with scene direction by Dulcídio Caldeira, the film featured artificial intelligence technology specifically trained for facial recognition by Elis Regina, unlike what is done in AI projects that use pre-trained technology from generic data.
Agency and producer teamed up with a specialized American post-production company, and with a repertoire of projects carried out for the Hollywood film industry. For days, the AI received extensive training with different technologies, combining the stuntwoman’s performance with Elis’s movements and images, arriving at the unprecedented and surprising result of the singer’s face.
“This work represents a lot for all parties involved. In it, there is the history of Volkswagen with Brazilians, the interrupted history of Elis Regina and Maria Rita, and for us at AlmapBBDO, there is our history of more than 60 years together with the brand in Brazil. The campaign uses sophisticated technology for a very human purpose: to thrill. We are promoting an unprecedented duet that was only possible in the imagination, and which now becomes absolutely real during the two minutes of the film”, celebrates Marco Giannelli, CCO of AlmapBBDO.
In addition to broadcasting on free-to-air TV, the communication strategy relies on materials out of homedigital media and activations at The Town, a music festival sponsored by Volkswagen do Brasil and will be held in September this year at the Interlagos Circuit, in São Paulo (SP), with Maria Rita on one of the stages and other attractions .
Watch the full campaign film below.
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