In celebration of the game-changing new Polo with IQ.DRIVE, Volkswagen has taken their latest campaign to the next level, launching South Africa’s first NFT (Non-Fungible Token) brand campaign with a metaverse-inspired ad commercial – the Mzansiverse. The campaign includes a locally produced future-focused commercial that integrates Volkswagen’s first-ever NFT Collections into the creative to gamify the fan experience.
Embracing the future of mobility and inspired by the virtual realm and gaming trends, the new commercial portrays the innovative new Volkswagen Polo navigating through a futuristic and gamified version of Mzansi – the Mzansiverse – with digital avatar characters to match. The ad offers fans a window into a future South Africa like they’ve never seen it before. Inspired by the metaverse and powered by the new Polo with IQ.DRIVE, Volkswagen and their creative partners have mirrored the new Polo’s innovative features and design with a gamified virtual world where anything is possible.
Sam Coleman, the commercial’s Director was passionate about ensuring that Johannesburg, the city the ad was shot and set in, featured as a strong character throughout the ad. “To recreate Johannesburg but maintain reality was crucial to me,“ said Coleman. “It was about creating a Johannesburg that has never been seen before. I wanted to feel like a switch had been flicked taking Joburg into the future. Then at the same time I wanted the characteristics of Joburg to still be felt,“ added Coleman.
Like Volkswagen, the commercial is leading the way as the first brand commercial, globally, to incorporate NFTs into the ad with Volkswagen introducing their first-ever NFT collection. Five unique Polo NFT Collections were created and inserted into the commercial for fans to find in order to stand a chance to win them. The aim was to gamify the fan experience to deliver not only an entertaining ad but one that rewards fans for their participation.
With the Polo being locally manufactured and in the spirit of Volkswagen’s continued commitment to ‘Drive Local, Support Local’ the campaign, commercial and NFT collections are all locally created. Harnessing and showcasing local talent the #GameOnVW campaign was conceptualised locally by creative partners (Ogilvy Cape Town), produced locally (Patriot Films) with world-class animation and CGI (computer-generated imagery) developed locally (Polycat). The commercial’s soundtrack was created by South African music team, Field, featuring local songstress, Moonchild Sanelly, with sound design created by local studio, Resonate.
Creating the commercial and the Mzansiverse, alongside 100 unique NFTs required hundreds of hours of research and pre-production. Attention to detail was put into every pixel, taking inspiration from classic and current games to pay homage to the virtual and gaming passions of Volkswagen Polo fans. It took a five-night shoot, over six weeks of post-production animation and CGI and a multitude of animation software to transform the streets of Johannesburg into the Mzansiverse, along with its avatar characters. Giving the ad an authentic cinematic gaming feel, Coleman, and production house, Patriot Films, utilised a specialised team of drone pilots to shoot all of the Polo footage from aerial shots only.
As one of South Africa’s market leaders, Volkswagen’s new Polo campaign highlights the brands progressive ambitions, not only in its vehicles but in sustaining their award-winning level of marketing executions. “Our new Polo Mzansiverse commercial and NFT campaign is testament to our brand having an eye on the future, not only in the innovation of our vehicles but in our ambition to embrace the passions of our customers and drive evolution in how we engage with them through our marketing executions,” said Bridget Harpur, Head of Marketing for the Volkswagen Passenger Car Brand.
How to play the #GameOnVW:
For five days (from 18 – 22 March 2022) Volkswagen Polo fans can hunt for the hidden NFTs in the commercial and stand a chance to win one of a 100 Polo NFTs. To play, fans will need to solve the daily clues shared on Volkswagen’s social channels to guess the daily NFT. To stand a chance to win, they will need to tweet a screenshot of the daily NFT from the ad to Volkswagen’s twitter page using #GameOnVW #NewPolo. The first 20 fans to tweet the correct NFT will win one of the NFTs to keep and collect or trade on the popular NFT trading platform OpenSea.
Hidden in the Polo NFT collections are three rare Golden NFTs that will give their owners exclusive benefits allowing them to level up, with a new PlayStation as well as Volkswagen Advanced Driving and GetSmarter courses.
