2021 Winner

In late 2020, Volkswagen revealed its frst sustainable, all-electric SUV. But with many auto brands having already announced their own electric vehicles, Volkswagen needed a way to stand out.

The result was “The Carbon-Neutral Net,” a web experience that revealed the environmental footprint of digital media – while also addressing it. Online media generates approximately 4% of global CO2 emissions. So Volkswagen and Type1 removed every vehicle image from its EV website and replaced them with over 1.5 million ASCII characters meticulously coded to create the illusion of car photography. It used a colourless, dark mode-inspired palette, and applied a similar design mindset to streamline the code running in the background.

The site generates only 0.022g of CO2 per page view, making it 99% more efficient than other sites. Four weeks after launching, the site had generated more than 22 million earned impressions.

Credits

TYPE1/TAXI
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CCO: Alexis Bronstorph
Creative Director: Allen Kwong
Copywriter: Zachary Richman, Austin Parkin, Michael Mehrasa
Art Director: Logan Franklin
Designer: Logan Franklin, David Tang, Ardit Hashimi, Will Cuthbert
Strategy Director: Aurora Stewart de Pena
Social Strategist: Michal Fetsum

TYPE1/Wunderman Thompson
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Account Director: Atash Khosrorad
Account Supervisor: Deema Kasem
Senior Project Manager: Jessy Stark
Project Manager: Anna Dumke
Product Manager: Matthew Clemente
Technology Director: Rob Cimicata
Developer: Christine Tan, Jay Catalan
Director Marketing Insights: Adrian Tudorache
Social Strategist: Kiana Ohori

Bicom