Volkswagen Tiguan Sends Fans on a Wacky Instagram Scavenger Hunt

After his first Hollywood hit, King Kong rampaged through various sequels. Aping that career trajectory, the king-sized, Kong-style gorilla balloon that stole the show in Volkswagen's popular Tiguan TV campaign pops up today in a virtual scavenger hunt game. Called "Rule the Road" and played on Instagram, the game has a race-through-the-city format that positions the 2018 Tiguan as a fun, sophisticated car for urbanites. The game drops today at 1 p.m. ET and runs through Oct 5. Daily clues guide users on a search for Tiguans hidden in a bustling metropolis. Once they find the right car, players submit a screenshot for a chance to win prizes, including a 10-day drip to San Francisco, Miami or New York. [kickout id="2"] In the game, Instagram's Carousel tiles form a detailed midtown map that contains lots of animated and live-action content. There's a heated coffee-house debate about which would win a fight, a tiger or an iguana; a trip to the zoo; a visit with construction workers high above the ground; and vignettes featuring the blonde driver from the gorilla commercial (as well as elements from "Nuts," another current TV ad). Tiguans clog the streets. Doesn't anyone in this ZIP code drive a Chevy? [kickout id="1"] As for VW's helium-headed simian star, his character appealingly evolves to the point where he amusingly menaces some dude wearing a rubber banana suit. "We developed a backstory that includes our hero driver and the gorilla—a little more depth about who she is and where she is going—and finally how the two of their worlds eventually merge," says Todd Riddle, executive creative director at Deutsch, which created both the game and Tiguan's recent TV spots. Crafting diverse, original game content was paramount because "we wanted this to be much more than a continuation of the broadcast campaign in which people just get to watch more of the story unfold in a digital medium," Riddle says. Deutsch and VW have scored with inventive games before, but for this project, "we were more inspired by what we could create that was completely new versus repeating any past success," says Riddle. "The inspiration came from trying to find a space where we could be inventive, that offered the opportunity to dovetail with the broader idea of the campaign and where we thought our target and audience were. Because this is a completely new kind of execution, there wasn't a lot of knowledge that existed in what we were trying to achieve, so we spent months crunching numbers and reworking the details of the creative approach to bring it to life." While the campaign is designed to last for three weeks, "the game itself is not a linear or cumulative experience that builds over time," says Deutsch creative director Zaid Al-Asady. "We've built it to be engaging every single day, so it works great for players who dive in for a single session to explore the vast world of content we've created. Those players who do follow along for the entire duration of the campaign will become more familiar with the map and the content within it, which creates a deeper experience and an advantage when it comes to solving the clues and claiming prizes." And there's a personal dimension fueled by one-on-one interaction. "We've built in a back-end moderation system that is fully powered by people, who will respond via DM in real-time with human responses to help guide users through the hunt," Al-Asady says. Hey, anything to drive that annoying emissions monkey off the brand's back, right? "With online formats getting shorter and shorter, there's a tendency to assume that people have a short attention span," Al-Asady says. "But if you build an experience around a clear objective and bake in unexpected moments of joy throughout, then you're onto a winner." CREDITS VW Tiguan Rule the Road – Instagram Experience LIVE date 09.15.17 Client Credits: President, CEO: Hinrich Woebcken EVP — Sales, Service and Marketing: Derrick Hatami Senior Director, Marketing Transformation, Strategy & Communications: Greg Tebbutt Director, Marketing Communications and Media: Jennifer Clayton Advertising Manager, VW Marketing: Chanel Barresi Advertising Specialist: Annabel Lyon Deutsch Credits: Creative: Chief Creative Officer, North America: Pete Favat Chief Digital Officer, North America: Winston Binch Executive Creative Director: Todd Riddle Group Creative Director: Heath Pochucha Creative Director: Zaid Al-Asady Senior Copywriter Nick Hammack Senior Art Director David Mugford Junior Copywriter: Ryan Schade Junior Art Director: Micah Wilkes Junior Copywriter: Charlotte Duerden Junior Art Director: Scott Frandsen Digital Design Digital Design Director Cris Strittmatter Associate Digital Design Director: Delphine Lin Senior Digital Designer: Jun Ikeya Senior Digital Designer: Neph Trejo Motion Design: Motion Tech Director: Tri Nguyen Motion Designer: Tim Hennessey Technology: Executive Creative Technology Director: Marc Gowland Senior Front End Engineer: Corey Newhouse Quality Assurance Director: Brittany Jones User Experience: Experience Design Group Director Rich Stewart UX Director Alex Vejnoska Lead Experience Designer: David Guerra Production: Director of Integrated Production: Vic Palumbo Chief Digital Officer: Pam Scheideler Director of Digital Production : IV Tench Executive Integrated Producer: Margaret Nickerson Senior Integrated Producer: Kathryn Riccio Executive Producer: Vanessa Scanlan Account Planning: Group Strategy Director: Donn Rohn Associate Strategy Director: Ben Perreira Senior Digital Strategist: Rachael Stets Junior Strategist: Payne Parker Account Management: Group Account Director: Tom Else Account Director: Josh Lybarger Account Director: Danielle Gordon Account Executive: Kiki Staszak Director of Product Information: Jason Clark Business Affairs: Director of Integrated Business Affairs: Abilino Guillermo Group Director Integrated Business Affairs: Gabriela Farias Senior Business Affairs Manager Saeyoung Kim Production Company The Mill + NYC Director: Will Adams, Alex Maxwell Edit: Jessica Ledouz and Leanna Belgiorno 2D Lead: Michael Smith, Kieran Hanrahan, Alex Miller, Laurent Giaume 3D Lead: Justin Kurtz, Billy Jang, Pablo Estrella You Design: Sally Reynolds, Aran Quinn Production: Georgina Castle, Lauren Orban, Samuel Centore Live Action Producer: Nic Barnes, Danika Casas DP: Adam Carboni Steelhead Managing Director: Ted Markovic Executive Producer: Avi Walsky Senior Editor: Ian Paxton Motion Graphics: Luis De Leon, Kennon Fleisher Associate Audio Producer: Drake Dixon

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Volkswagen Tiguan Sends Fans on a Wacky Instagram Scavenger Hunt

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