Tweet races, Twitter games, and Twitter based competitions are nothing new, but occasionally one comes along that really works. Case in point VW’s #polowers campaign created by DDB Spain. The numbers in the video are pretty impressive, even though the number of participants was only 4075. This collective race, generated over 150,000 tweets with the hashtag #Polowers in 8 hours averaging 5 tweets per second. On top of that the campaign reached more than 10% of Spain’s global twitter audience. In addition, the game generated a vast amount of visits to Polo´s product section on www.volkswagen.es, reaching a record of its history. The screen shot above is from the integrated website that was developed for the game. Unfortunately it has been pulled down.
Based on the rarity of these vehicles, and the history behind them, I’m betting the “Price on Request” is close to a million dollars. I could be way off here, but we are talking about the Porsche V racing car and the custom VW Pickup Van built to carry it. Both date to 1964, and have had full frame off restorations. Based on the photos, these two are going to bring a pretty penny when they sell. If I had the money I’d be all over it, even though there is no way my 6 foot 4 inch body is ever going to fit in that tiny Porsche racer. That’s OK though, I’d be happy just to drive the van and gaze at the wonderful lines of the V. If you have the money, the complete history and contact info for the cars can be found here.
I want to hand it to Ogilvey’s Cape Town South Africa offices for turning out a smart and engaging spot for the VW Amarok (sadly a vehicle that will never make it to the USA). The production quality of this spot shines, with really great cinematography, editing, staging, casting and soundtrack.
Produced by Velocity Films the ad features the Amarok rolling through a museum designed to look like the Smithsonian built on a sound stage at Cape Town Film Studios. Velocity created five dioramas using over 130 tons of sand and 26 tons of rock depicting everything from cavemen to the lunar landings. As the truck rolls through the museum an unsuspecting janitor polishes the floors while listening to a funky version of “It Don’t Mean a Thing, If It Ain’t Got That Swing”.
The shoot and post work took more than two months to complete including the build out of the sets, and it shows. The final piece has a highly credible museum look and feel.
“The final result provides an unexpected, striking and amusing way of highlighting the technological innovation and smart, tough capabilities of the Amarok”.Jacques Massardo
There are a couple of things that struck me when I saw this video on YouTube. First it’s a great use of Augmented Reality to advertise the thrifty nature of the VW Electric Golf. Second, it is how absolutely Western the setting, and people look. The Chinese people, not the token white guy in the video.
I know there is a huge fascination with western culture in China, and especially all things American, but Ogilvy Beijing and Ogilvy Hong Kong took it to a new level by using only English language titles in the Augmented reality application, and by making the only place the application functions a café that feels like a cross between an Apple store and a Starbucks.
The Augmented Reality app “Electric Café” from Volkswagen, was setup to educate and inspire people in China about how energy efficient the VW Electric Golf actually is in comparison to other electric appliances they use every day.
The café is peppered with AR markers on each of the appliances that are in the Café space.When an iOS device is pointed at any of the markers the AR experience comes to life and shows a comparison between the appliance, and how far you could drive the Golf based on the amount of juice that appliance uses in a day. It’s a pretty clever idea, and one that I wish I knew more about that strategy behind. I’d be really curious to see what the thinking was behind the very western execution of this.
By the way, is it just me, or do all of the people in this video look like they were just plucked out of some mid-western shopping mall in America.
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