VOLKSWAGEN / PUNCH DUB

So Super Bowl weekend has come and gone - plays were made, dreams realised, investments paid off... and that was just the ads! Ha. There is, however, one rather smart integrated campaign lurking behind one of the uber-expensive TV spots and it comes from Volkswagen, courtesy of Deutsch LA.

The TV spot shows a selection of people playing a game called 'Punch Dub' - a reworking of the user-generated travel classic 'Punch Buggy'. Essentially a fighty version of 'Eye Spy', this entitles anyone who spots a VW Beetle to call out 'Punch buggy red' before dealing their unsuspecting fellow passenger a pack of fives. Punch Dub extends the game to any VW and in doing so, should raise awareness of all 13 different models currently on US roads.

A website explains the finer points of the game via a 23-page electronic guide book. There is also the option to deal your own virtual blows to friends via the Facebook Connect application. Weekly winners will be awarded 6-month leases to selected VW's, with a grand prize of a brand new CC convertible also up for grabs.

http://www.facebook.com/vw

Perhaps our favourite element of the campaign, however, comes in the form of a mockumentary starring 'Sluggy Patterson' who allegedly started the Punch Dub pastime. Via a series of videos hosted both on the website and VW's YouTube channel, Sluggy lays into his timid interviewer whilst charting the history of the game. There are even hints of Aleksandr Orlov (the fuzzy talisman for Compare the Market's hugely successful campaign from VCCP London) about our surly protagonist as he will be constantly updating his own blog as well as personally interacting with fans across his own Twitter feed.

The $6 million dollar question for VW (yeap, that's roughly how much 60 seconds of ad prime real estate will cost you during the Super Bowl these days) is, will this campaign gain enough momentum to see the new game replace the Punch Buggy original? Creating a genuine phenomenon which becomes engraved in popular culture is clearly something of a marketing holy grail; if this campaign truly succeeds, it could see every VW car on the minds and lips of the US public long after the campaign has run its course... Remember, that's IF...

http://www.vw.com/punchdub