Tag archives: netherlands

The Volkswagen Snake

After the successful Juke Box launched last Autumn, Volkswagen and Achtung! are back with Snake. The advergame idea in itself is not as original as the previous project, but is definitely as sticky and engaging.

Dick helps us understanding the game: “The idea is simple: Volkswagen lowered the prices of its most popular models. This means Volkswagen becomes even more popular. You can discover the new prices by playing Volkswagen Snake. Each bonus you collect, reduces the price. And that of course attracts more people. But be careful, be aware of the people behind your car when going for the lowest price“.

Snake is definitely a popular game, many of us have already played for hours on a Nokia phone, however, despite the fact we might be familiar with the gaming mechanism, winning is not easy.

Axe launches Maneater advergame

Axe is online in The Netherlands with a new advergame: Maneater.

Don’t worry if you’re a zombie, if your deodorant is Axe Dark Tentation girls will chase you anyway…

The Volkswagen Drive In

From The Netherlands, a uber cool site to celebrate Volkswagen’s 60th anniversary in the country and challenge your music knowledge. Everything it’s in Dutch, but don’t panic, just wait for the site to load, and then click on “speel het spel” to start playing… You have to match every song with the decade it belongs to… I did 11 at the first attempt, and you?

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The Schiphol experience

Dutch agency Achtung shows us again that they have great skills in creating 3D worlds. Their latest work is a website to explain and illustrate what happens in Schiphol, Amsterdam’s airport. Everything is in Dutch, but you don’t have to speak the language to understand what’s going on in the Schiphol world, do like kids do and just enjoy the great animations to find out its secrets. Learn how planes take off and land, discover how freights are managed and the potentials of the airport surrounding area. The site is impressive. I must admit that at first I didn’t understand the ultimate communication/marketing goal of such a project, but fortunately Dirk provided me with the key to appreciate it and realize it isn’t just a nice aestetic exercise.

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Be a Millionaire (at least online)

From the Netherlands, Ruben sent me the link to a very cool project Redurban has created for De Lotto (dutch lottery). The Millionaire is an interactive film you play and live in first person as new uber-rich. The big question is “Can you handle the rich life”? Can you pick the right girl? And what about the right car? Make your choices, take your risks (or avoid them) and see what happens… The whole film is very well done with the right dose of sense of humor and good attention to the details. Actually it’s a very good example of interactive branded entertainment exploiting the new frontiers of broadband. And even if the interactivity is not very sophisticated, I believe and The Millionaire is definitely worth a couple of plays as well as some emails sent to friends.

BMW drives in 3D

The Perfect Race is not the only online driving challenge BMW is currently running. There is also the BMW eDrive Challenge 2007 recently launched in The Netherlands to show in practice which are the characteristics of the EfficientDynamics new features. Developed by Little Chicken Game Company, the game is all in 3D and requires the installation of a dedicated plug-in. Unfortunately, on my Mac it keeps crashing the browser, so cannot really tell you whether it’s good or not… If someone can get through, would be nice to have an opinion

Open your eyes on violence on children

You already know I’m always glad when I see online marketing applied to social campaigns. The new one I’ve been told about by Dick and his agency (Achtung!) has been launched to draw people’s attention on children suffering in The Netherlands. The site is called in Dutch “Ik zie ik zie wat jij niet ziet” (which translates as “I see I see what you don’t see”) and it has been developed for SIRE (Stichting Ideële Reclame - Foundation for Non-commercial Campaigns) a is not government-funded association which works on campaign on urgent issues in society that do not get enough attention. The work done for SIRE by advertising agencies, web agencies and other companies is donated. The same goes for air time, ad space and other facilities.

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The Irish Dancing Game

Here in The Netherlands, the Irish Tourism Board is running an online game that allows players to win flight tickets to Dublin, Cork or Belfast. It features a series of lovely cartoon characters dancing the typical Irish dance. Your goal is to dance with them without stepping into their feet. A funny idea, but the playability isn’t very good. Furthermore there is a bug that doesn’t allow you to play twice with the same email address.

Twix Eaters Anonymous

Erick sent me the link to the Twix Eaters Anonymous website, which offers online consults to teach people the importance of sharing their Twix. The site (in Dutch and English) provides some funny confessions of anonymous Twix eaters who received help to get past their greediness. Of course, Twix denies being behind this, but once you get on their Dutch website, the only content you find is actually a message saying they shouldn’t be held responsible for Twix Eaters Anonymous (TWA). At the end of the message, if you want to get further information on the TWA, you’re invited to click to visit the TWA website… The TWA idea is somehow nice (but I’m not sure it really makes me visiting the website again), but I would have expected something smarted to show/hide Twix is behind it. Generally speaking a good idea which could have been executed much better.

Coup-a-soup, grab a prize

In The Netherlands Cup-a-Soup is running a successful online challenge at www.cupasoup.nl. The game combines online and offline elements, with users able to collect extra credits by using the unique codes they find on the product packages. In five weeks the game has been played over 125,000 times by over 70,000 unique users. A smart viral idea is playing a role in this campaign success: by referring friends, users get extra credits and therefore gain more chances of winning prizes. As Marketingfacts (in Dutch) reports, the campaign has mobilized in particular women between 35 to 55 years, an audience which isn’t usually accustomed to online gaming.