VW's leading traditional brand makes ads into apps

More and more traditional brands are starting to play the app idea. Starbucks takes you to the coffee shop and shares the mood, and Lenovo TV beauties interact with the microblogging platform to get you to know the product; You use mobile phone driving the latest version of the Porsche 911Carrera driving in the north Inner Mongolia Yunlong Lake Snow track, see the number of dashboard constantly breakthrough, heard the sound of the engine amazing, too curved, you feel the snow Ridge drift, Snow jilt tail. Will you say it in your heart: it's so cool! Unconsciously, you have a "commercial" applauded-this is just a popular sports car app.

Talking about new media and interactive marketing is no novelty to the public (VOLKSWAGEN). A year ago, it launched the "public self-made" SNS network interactive activities, access to tens of millions of web sites and more than 110,000 creative works of automotive design. One of the Chinese girls designed the concept of "Hover car" (Magnetic suspension dome) has also been moved to the Beijing Auto Show. However, how to achieve its nearly 10 high-end sports car brand High-profile debut, and potential consumers zero distance contact, is not easy. In this respect, the Sports car division accepted a teenage game enthusiast's suggestion to develop a racing game. VW's expectations for the game are: perfect to highlight the sports car performance, for the sports car market, by a high-quality game company to complete.

A studio called Fishlabs (Magic Fish) broke into the public eye. The studio, which is prominent in 3D textures and lighting, is not only an excellent representation of iOS and Android platforms, but has also worked with Apple, Samsung, Nokia, Lenovo, Sony Ericsson and Nvidia. Volkswagen soon finalized the target with this "German fellow" in Hamburg, and named it "Super Speed racing".

Forget about ads

How to reassure users of an app game implanted in the "ads" sense of resistance? Fishlabs's answer is superb image design and immersive gaming experience.

In order to restore the true sports car engine sound, Fishlabs's sound efficiency director and the Volkswagen sports car staff traveled through Germany, France and the United Kingdom almost car dealers and showrooms, is to record the original engine sound of each model. "We took the car, the accelerator, the brakes, the sound of the braking curve, and the perfect fit of the car's surroundings. It feels like you're sitting in your car and opening the engine yourself! "Marks Nels, director of China sales and marketing at Volkswagen Sports Coupe project," said.

In creating the real 3D effect of the game, both sides are painstaking. In addition to the 1:1 completely authentic restoration of real car color and interior, the selection of hub style, Fishlabs also designed for users with the effect of entering the store 360 full view, as well as the sports car real-time display dashboard changes-this is the previous mobile terminal difficult to achieve. In order to make the circuit more realistic, the staff selected the German Black Forest, Inner Mongolia Yakeshi Lake real scene, and even for users to restore the snow ridge drift, snow tail feeling. In the run-up to the April Beijing Auto Show, Fishlabs and VW updated the two newest sports cars-Porsche 911 Carrera s and Bentley's Continental GT V8-and played live games with users at the auto show.

Just to achieve the effect of the game, seems to have not let fishlabs feel content. On this basis, Fishlabs has also specifically integrated social media features, users can share the latest sports car pictures and share the car record, so far, the number of shares has exceeded 1 million times. and its built-in according to the sports car brand to find a dealer's function, but also make tens of thousands of of users access to the popular sports car dealer network.

This is a type of advertising game, but the realization of the user's self communication. It can be said that fishlabs a good use of the magic of SNS. "I see a research data that the potential users of an ad game can reach or affect more than 100 million of the world, which is a business opportunity for us," he said. "Marks told global entrepreneur what he wanted," but you know that a lot of people are disgusted with advertising, rather than waiting for someone else to choose, we should take the initiative to engage, let people participate in. ”

Obviously, fishlabs not let the public disappointed, on the line more than six months, "super speed" has the Volkswagen 6 brand 9 Volkswagen authorized Super sports car loaded into the app. Through tracking the user game usage to understand 1/4 users to Lamborghini brand dote on, both sides also increased the attention of a super sports car-lamborghini Aventador lp700-4. "The game now has more than 2.5 million downloads, and more than 40 million minutes of brand involvement." "Andreas Stecher, executive vice president of Fishlabs Sales, told the global entrepreneur."

The origin of the magic fish

What is the fishlabs that successfully helped the VW sports car play the app?

In fact, it's just a German studio with 56 employees. 8 years ago, German Michael Schade and Christian Lohr the university's classmate friends to founder Fishlabs. They had also set up a studio to create 3D effects for architects and large real estate companies. An opportunity for the studio to collaborate with Sony Ericsson, BMW Mini and the first project Mini Challenge. As the world's second 3D mobile game, Sony Ericsson has a great appreciation for the game's ability to bring the 3D quality and speed of the phone to a perfect display.

Why not develop more games to showcase the brand's 3D capabilities? Michael and Christian, two people who have been avid game fans since childhood, Sony's 3D project can be said to provoke a second interest in the game. So, Fishlabs turned out.

However, the development of fishlabs is not a smooth road. In the Java era, Fishlabs experienced a difficult period due to the high piracy rate of software. Although also developed several car games, but the popularity is not high. Until 2008, when Apple released the iphone and opened the App Store, Fishlabs's turnaround began to emerge. At first, fishlabs to grasp the opportunity, not only developed a large 3D space shooting game "bath Fire Galaxy 2", but also began to and Barclays and other blue-chip customers to cooperate.

Fishlabs's first contact with Volkswagen began at the end of 2008, when VW wanted to develop an app racing game to promote the new polo. Some running-in, Fishlabs built this game in March 2009 App Store online A few months later, the number of countries to occupy the forefront of the download list. The public is very satisfied with the performance, and they want to continue to work with Fishlabs to launch more theme games. So, there is the cooperation with the sports car below.

Success Key

In any case, it would be a surprise for a small company to gain recognition from the Giants. Besides being a German fellow with the public, what's the secret?

Andreas Stecher, Fishlabs Sales Executive vice president, believes that this is the German spirit that communicates with his clients. "All over the world, German-made products are recognized as first-class quality." This is what we apply to our work standards, and if you can't provide the best quality, picture, sound, and game control, how do you beat 600,000 opponents in the App store? "Andreas Stecher to global entrepreneur," especially if you want to build a long lasting relationship with a brand, this is absolutely necessary because no one will give you a second chance. ”

A smooth partnership with the public has also brought more opportunities to the studio in Hamburg, the largest beverage company in the world. Now, partners from program, image design, game making, quality assurance and marketing teams have to work together to create more possibilities in two big offices and a sound effects room.

Of course, as the winner of the other side, the Volkswagen sports car also tasted the sweetness, because "super speed" 60% of the download volume from China, which let marks South saw a vast market, "big to more than our imagination." He told the global entrepreneur, "for manufacturers like Volkswagen to enter China's two or three-or four or five-tier market, the new media strategy is very important, and integrated marketing allows more Chinese to understand and participate in the lifestyle created by sports cars." We are ready for it. ”