Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and Bernbach have turned Australia’s road network into a single creative property: Walkinshaw World. The campaign for the Amarok V6 W600, developed with Walkinshaw Automotive Group, reframes familiar stretches of asphalt as theme-park rides, complete with names, identities and hero-film attractions.
The activation is deliberately local. Sydney’s Pacific Motorway becomes The Big Dipper. Queensland’s Gateway Motorway is The Gold Coaster. Melbourne’s elevated West Gate Freeway becomes The Highline, and Bathurst’s Mount Panorama is The Mountain. A hero film adds The Corkscrew, Croc River Rapids and Drop Bear’s Drop.
An AI-powered map for 100+ local rides
Bernbach built an AI mapping tool that treats every Volkswagen dealership as a hub. It scans the surrounding roads for elevation, gradient, curvature, terrain changes and landmarks, then generates multiple routes designed to show what the Amarok can do.
The routes sit on a live dashboard with Google Maps integration, including start and end points and route statistics. Bernbach then chose one route per dealership, gave it a manual name and a custom visual identity. More than 100 attractions make up the final Walkinshaw World blueprint.
At each dealership, drivers can book a Test Ride matched to their local route. That is the conversion layer: national film and OOH build the world, while the dealer network turns it into a hands-on experience.
Why the idea matters
Ute advertising usually leans on off-road hero shots. But Bernbach Creative Director Steve Hey points out that drivers actually spend most of their time on the road. “Australia has its fair share of roads but not that many theme park rides,” Hey said, so the team created one, complete with real fiberglass crocodiles.
Creative Director Owen Bryson says the team borrowed “thrill physics,” the language rollercoaster engineers use, to describe the driving experience. It is a strong example of borrowing authority from an adjacent world rather than inventing a new one.
What marketers should steal
- Localise through data, finish with craft. AI scans and scores the local opportunities; humans do the naming and design.
- Turn your physical network into media. Dealerships became the entry point to a national creative idea.
- Use what already exists. The campaign reframed existing roads instead of building a new world from scratch.
Walkinshaw World is rolling out nationally across film, targeted out-of-home, social and the dealer Test Rides activation. The result is a single national brand story that feels personal in 100+ places. For multi-location brands, that is a template worth copying.
Source: Campaign Brief
