Volkswagen Singapore has launched a campaign centred on its philosophy of environmental conservation. ‘Think Blue.’ is a global initiative from Volkswagen and is focused on encouraging eco-friendly behaviour by making it fun. In Singapore, Tribal DDB has together with Volkswagen, created a year-long campaign that will be rolled out in phases.
The campaign starts with the ‘Think Blue.’ digital engagement webspecial which features the first-ever social media driven virtual road trip integrated with Google Street View, that lets the user invite friends along for the ride. While educating the masses on the ‘Think Blue.’ philosophy in a fun and interactive way, the website also brings people together on an online social road trip; a carefully planned journey brings the user through various checkpoints with games and interactions along the way to highlight the essence of Think Blue.
Using several of Google’s Open API like Maps, direction and Street View together with Facebook and Twitter, users are invited to go on a virtual road trip with their Facebook friends. They are given options to choose a Volkswagen car, plan a route, and pick three Facebook friends to take along with them across the sunny island of Singapore. With the technological mashup, users can document their journey; mark checkpoints with a personalized message and the whole experience is compiled into a downloadable map, complete with a customized license plate and ‘photo’ of the user and his or her road trip buddies.
During their road trip, users will also get to sample a unique multi-windowed gaming experience made possible by HTML 5. Conceived as fuel challenges, these games teach users how to ‘Think Blue.’ while entertaining them with simple yet fun game mechanics. Users who ace all the fuel challenges even stand a chance to win a Volkswagen weekend drive.
After all the action on the virtual road, users can take a backseat and learn more about the Volkswagen technologies that support the green philosophy. To inject some fun, Tribal DDB took to the idea of getting a child’s perspective and the immensely charming ‘Think Blue. Tales’ were born, where users will hear a kid’s take on Volkswagen cars and technologies. In the days ahead, users can also expect to hear “Think Blue. Tales” on national TV and radio.
To get a hands-on feel of ‘Think Blue.’, users can sign up for Volkswagen’s Eco-driving Programme through the website and learn fuel-efficient driving techniques from Volkswagen-certified driving instructors.
Volkswagen isn’t just paying lip service to the very real concerns of pollution and global warming. A formal pledge to ‘Think Blue.’ was made by every Volkswagen employee long before the public campaign rolled out. Tribal DDB joined in by crafting educational posters by hand using recycled materials. These eye-catching handicraft posters now adorn the walls of Volkswagen’s corporate office. Other internal initiatives include a ‘Think Blue.’ committee made up of staff representatives from the various departments to explore and implement green ideas from employees, as well as email signatures reminding recipients not to print their emails.