Hitchhike With A Like
- Brand
- Volkswagen
- Year
- 2012
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Automotive
- Platform
- Social
- Agency
- DDB & Tribal Amsterdam
Objective
Volkswagen needed to launch the third-generation Beetle across Europe in a way that felt true to the car's rebellious 1960s image, rather than running a standard product ad. The brand wanted young, urban Facebook users to voluntarily spend time with the Beetle, like its page, pull friends in, and discover the new model's range and features through a story instead of a spec sheet.
Solution
The game lives on Volkswagen's Facebook pages in ten markets: a player logs in with their own account, picks a European city, and presses a raised-thumb "Like" button to hitch a ride. A Beetle pulls over — one of 64 uniquely painted cars, each driven by a different character — and the trip plays out as a short story with its own soundtrack and a surprise ending. Finishing a ride earns points and a shot at bonus rewards; racking up points moves the player through five ranks, from newcomer up to "hitchhike king," unlocking new Beetle models, downloadable tracks, and prizes. Bringing friends into the game speeds up that climb, and a running leaderboard decides who gets first claim on the top prizes, so a session ends with the player hitching again, in a new city, to move up the ranks.
- 1
The player reaches the game from Volkswagen's Facebook page and launches the app with their own Facebook account; liking the app is the entry requirement, standing in for the raised-thumb hitchhiking gesture the game is built around.
- 2
The player starts at the lowest of five ranks (topping out at "hitchhike king"), with progress tracked in points and experience, and picks a destination city on a map of Europe, though the point of the game is the journey of successive rides rather than arrival itself.
- 3
The core loop has the player "vote" at the roadside and get picked up by one of 64 characters, each driving a distinctly painted Beetle; each pickup plays out as a short story about the driver and car with an unexpected twist, drawn from a pool of 256 possible rides.
- 4
Each ride is scored with its own original soundtrack track tied to that character.
- 5
Rides earn points, with bonuses for favorable story outcomes and for reaching new locations.
- 6
Players can invite Facebook friends, and their participation adds to the inviter's score and speeds up progress.
- 7
Accumulating experience raises the player's rank, unlocking new Beetle models to continue the trip in; the point threshold to level up changes depending on which Beetle the player is currently driving.
- 8
Reaching the professional rank opens a post-game goal of unlocking all 64 Beetles, which also collects the game's full soundtrack as downloadable MP3s.
- 9
Points convert into prizes, and overall leaderboard standing sets the odds of winning bigger rewards such as festival tickets, a Fender guitar, skateboards, free tracks, and a trip to Autostadt in Wolfsburg, with the top-ranked player at campaign's end winning a real European road trip in a new Beetle visiting music festivals.
