Volkswagen Game On

CHALLENGE

We needed to launch the new Polo with IQ.DRIVE, a car aimed at a digitally integrated audience who make up the largest population of gamers, crypto owners and adblocker users. With 49% using adblockers, we needed to play by different rules with a game of our own.

IDEA

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 the leading NFT trading platform, OpenSea, to develop a collection of NFTs inspired by these very streets, and designed to help fans level up in the real and meta world. We then hid them amongst our advertising and invited fans to find the NFTs through a scavenger hunt across social media. 

RESULTS

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. The campaign was embraced by a niche target audience, leading to VW exceeding sales targets and selling out of the new Polo.

FILM

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User Journey

  • 1. Trailers

    We released a series of trailers designed to look like a new game was loading across social.

  • 2. Teaser Post

    We then released teaser posts, that drove people to a microsite where our audience discovered the competition - A 5-Day treasure hunt across social media for a collection of NFTs.

  • 3. Clue Post

    We released the first clue to the whereabouts of the NFT, through posts across social (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)

  • 4. Ad with Embedded NFT

    Our audience needed to decipher the clue, and track down the NFT hidden in the online ad.

  • 5. Consumer Entry

    Fans needed to tweet a screenshot of the exact frame where the NFT is hidden in the ad, to @volkswagensa

  • 6. Reveal & Announcement

    The first 20 correct entries won that day’s NFT. At the end of each day, we released a post revealing the NFT and winners who tracked it down.

  • 7. NFT on OpenSea

    After each day, we minted that day’s collection of NFTs and housed them on the OpenSea platform. At the end of the hunt, we airdropped the NFTs to the winners.

NFT COLLECTION

We worked with NFT platform, OpenSea, to develop a collection of individually made NFTs we called the “Manzsiverse”, Mzansi being the slang term for South Africa. The collection consisted of 5 chapters, each inspired by the many different styles found in gaming, the metaverse and South African street culture. The sub-sections are: Pixel Playground, Neon, Holos, 8-Bit players, Vending Machine Balls

We housed the “Mzansiverse” on the Polygon blockchain due to it having the lowest gas fees and energy usage, ensuring the collection had virtually no impact on the environment and our audience’s wallet. Take a look at the full collection on OpenSea here.

FULL CASE STUDY

Year: 2022  / Client: Volkswagen South Africa  /  Agency: Ogilvy Cape Town / Chief Executive Officer & Creative Chairman: Pete Case  /  Executive Creative Director: Camilla Clarke / Creative Director & Copywriter: Alex Goldberg / Assc. Creative Director & Art Director: Riaan van Wyk / Senior Art Director: Melissa Raath / Art Director: Annie Bekker / Copywriter: Dom Swiegers, Jacques Massardo / Group head, 3D motion designer: Neill Pretorius / Junior motion designer: Nina Roodbol / Design Creative: Jesse Mason / Managing Partner: Alexis Ede / Business Director: Muriel Gouws / Head of Broadcast: Cathy Day / Project Manager: Melissa Forgus / Production Company: Patriot / Director: Sam Coleman / Exec Producer: Zayd Halim / Senior Producer: Tess Tambourlas / Production Manager: Kelly Ryan / Director of Photography: Rory O’Grady / Drone team: FC Hamman / Art Director: Keenan McAdam / Props Master: Cara Falken / Stylist: Amy Zama / Make-up Artist: Tammi Mbambo / Hairstylist: Mimi Duma / VFX & Animation: Polycat Visual Effects / VFX supervisor / Animation Director: Goddy Roodt / VFX TD: Lloyd Wilgen / VFX Artist: Conor Louw / Production Designer & Art Director: Caylin Roodt / Production Coordinator: Tamzyn Johannes / Lighting Supervisor: Daniel Du Plessis / Junior lighting artists: Sian Blackbeard, Bazil Power, Michael Kleynhans, Emma Somers / Rigging Supervisor: Ruan Myburgh / Rigging Artist: Conor Louw / Asset Creation Lead: Arzel Vorster / Asset Creator: Elia Toulouras / Junior Asset Creator: Zandri Shepherd / Animators: Julia Coull, Maya Kahanovitz, Jacobus Boshoff / Compositing Supervisor: Wicus Labuschagne / Compositing lead: Nicholas Mackay / Compositing Artists: Alain De Klerk, Carmia Naude / Pipeline Supervisor: Roger Wellard / Post Production: Priest / Editor: Matthew Swanepoel / Content Editor: Amelia Cohen / Producer: Michelle Duvenage / Grade: The Refinery / Colourist: Kyle Stroebel / Online: Priest / Online VFX Artist: Nathan Anderson / Music: Field Composer: Nic van Reenen & Simon Kohler / Audio: Resonate Audio / Sound Engineer: Rob Brinkworth / Musician: Moonchild Sanelly / NFT Consultant: MetaLabsAfrica / NFT Producer: Tyrone Rubin / NFT Producer: Brendan Louw

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