Polowers by Volkswagen
Volkswagen Polo
Issue 26 | March 2013
Agency
DDB Spain
Creative Team
General Creative Director: Jose Maria Roca de Vinals Creative Directors: Javier Melendez, Xavi de la Cruz Creative Team: Pucho Alepuz, Lili Dominguez, Andres Susin, Marta Monsarro, Jordi Gonzalez, Jana Hernandez, Iratxe Cobodevilla Technical Director: Emilio Gonzalez Interactive Director: Pablo Sanchez
Production Team
Digital Production: RBS Media 3D modelling: Fake Studio
Other Credits
Business Director: Gorka Lozano Account Director: Javier Villalba Digital Account Director: Thais Ruiz de Alba Account Executive: Laura del Rio Strategic Planning Director: Samanta Judez Agency Producer: Vicky Monino Digital Producer: Jordi Fernandez Client Approval: Caita Montserrat, Pedro Fondevilla
Date
May 2012
Background
The Volkswagen Polo was a car most young people desired but it rarely popped up in their conversations in social media. The ambition was to try to get the brand to be the number one topic of conversation on Twitter for a day.
Idea
A campaign was created around the concept of ‘Polowers’, a mash-up between Polo and ‘followers’.
It was a game people were invited to play over eight hours on one day with the end prize being a new Polo.
The Twitter API was integrated into the Polowers microsite and it required users to become followers if they wanted to play.
Every tweet advanced the Polo a few metres on the website. The last person to tweet using the #polowers hastag before the Polo crossed the virtual finishing line would win the car.
Results
The campaign generated more than 150,000 tweets eight hours after launching, at a rate of 5 tweets per second. And it accounted for more than 10% of Twitter´s total audience in Spain, in addition to leading the Top 10 trending topics. Also, the game generated a record number of visits to Polo´s product section on www.volkswagen.es,.
Polo fans began calling themselves Polowers and tweeted messages such as, with "After what happened today, I will consider myself a Polower forever" or "We will remain Polowers even if we don’t win the Polo”.
Our Thoughts
The only way to get the Polo to the finish line is to get it off the start line. That’s how you get people tweeting throughout the day.
The frenzy as the car approached the endline must have been something to behold. But, a bit like bidding on EBay, incredibly annoying if you have put in all the grunt work and some other sod turns up at the very last second and pips you to the prize.
For me, the part of the campaign that validates what would otherwise have been a gratuitous foray into social media is the fact it drove “record” numbers to the product pages of the website, where people could find out more about the car.