Pocket Mustang
- Brand
- Ford
- Year
- 2016
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Automotive
- Mechanic
- Simulation & Strategy
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Resn
- With
- GTB
Objective
Ford was bringing the Mustang to China, where test-drive waiting lists ran three months long and slots were reselling online for up to US$150. Pocket Mustang gave anyone with a phone instant, free access to a taste of driving the car — no dealership, no wait — and left them with a shareable clip to prove it.
Solution
Set the phone flat on a table and it becomes a toy Mustang, seen from above. Tilt, swerve and jerk the phone like a steering wheel, and the car on screen mirrors every move in real time, racking up badges for tricks along the way. Try something wild enough and the session cuts to one of roughly 16 hidden bonus clips instead of the expected footage. When the run ends, the site instantly edits together real driving footage that matches the player's exact moves, handing back a personal highlight reel of an actual Mustang pulling off their stunts — ready to save and share.
- 1
The player opens a link on a smartphone browser and plays without installing anything; setup is placing the phone flat on a tabletop, where it doubles as both the toy Mustang and the controller.
- 2
The player steers by physically moving and tilting the phone across the table; the device's gyroscope reads this motion and translates it into the on-screen Mustang's driving pattern.
- 3
The core challenge is performing a set of named driving maneuvers with the phone's motion, including a donut, a shake, a figure eight, a U-turn, a drift, and a zigzag.
- 4
Landing maneuvers successfully unlocks badges, giving the session a built-in achievement system.
- 5
Attempting a maneuver that reads as physically impossible can trigger one of about 16 hidden bonus scenes mixed into the experience.
- 6
Once the session ends, a backend system matches the player's recorded movement pattern against a library of more than 1,500 real driving clips and automatically edits them into a personalized video.
- 7
The player's takeaway is that finished video, showing a real Mustang replicating the exact moves they made with their phone.
