Project Description

The Volkswagen Polo is South Africa’s favourite hatch, but rivals are gaining popularity as the Volkswagen brand is viewed as safe and behind the times when it comes to technology. We needed to launch the new Polo with IQ.DRIVE, Volkswagen’s intelligence system, a car aimed at a digitally integrated audience who make up the largest population of gamers, crypto owners and adblocker users.  They embrace technology in all aspect of their lives, and it informs their buying decisions, from their homes and devices to their choice of car. With 49% using adblockers, we needed to play by different rules with a game of our own. Introducing Game On. An interactive campaign that turned our advertising into a gamified, online hunt for this audience’s most treasured currency – NFTs. We started by transforming the city of Johannesburg into an African corner of the Metaverse. We then worked with leading NFT trading platform, OpenSea, to develop a collection of NFTs inspired by these very streets. We then hid them amongst our advertising and invited our audience to find the NFTs through a scavenger hunt across social media. We hyped the release with gamer influencers and teasers. With the community primed, we dropped our gamified ad. We released new clues every day through social. Fans then needed to find the NFTs in our ad, and tweet a screenshot of the NFT using #GameOnVW #NewPolo, in doing so, turned their social feeds into ad space for the new Polo. This campaign set a new benchmark for engagement in the attention economy as millions who avoid ads, were now watching our ad over and over again, whilst turning their social feeds into free ad space for the new Polo. CAMPAIGN EARNED REACH 15,9 Million high affinity audiences reached through earned media CAMPAIGN ENGAGEMENT: • Most viewed advert of 2022 • 93,8% average percentage viewed of the pre-roll video ad • 300 x average Twitter Engagement rate • 179% above average campaign page dwell time SALES RESULTS We exceeded sales target by 12% New Polo sold out

IDIDTHAT MEMBER CREDITS

Agency: Ogilvy South Afirca (Cape Town)
Editing Company: Priest
Editor: Matthew Swanepoel
Film Director: Sam Coleman
Film Production Company: Patriot
Music: Field
Music Composer: Nic van Reenen & Simon Kohler
Post Production Facility: Priest
Grade: The Refinery
Colourist: Kyle Stroebel
VFX Operator: Nathan Anderson

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