Volkswagen Launches The New Polo With South Africa’s First NFT Brand Campaign

In celebration of the new Polo with IQ.DRIVE, Volkswagen is taking things to the next level while embracing the future of mobility. The People’s Car brand has launched South Africa’s first NFT (Non-Fungible Token) brand campaign, with a future-focused commercial incorporating Volkswagen’s first collections of NFTs.

“Our new Polo NFT campaign and Mzansiverse commercial is testament to Volkswagen’s eye on the future, not only in the innovation of our vehicles but in embracing the passions of our fans and driving evolution in how we engage with them,” said Bridget Harpur, Head of Marketing for the Volkswagen Passenger Car Brand.

Inspired by the virtual realm and gaming trends, the new commercial portrays the innovative new Polo navigating through a futuristic and gamified version of Mzansi – the Mzansiverse – with digital avatar characters to match. The ad offers fans a window into a future South Africa like they’ve never seen it before. Inspired by the metaverse and powered by the new Polo with IQ.DRIVE, Volkswagen has created a real-meets-virtual world where anything is possible.

Like Volkswagen, the commercial is leading the way as the first brand ad, globally, to incorporate NFTs in the creative. To celebrate the game-changing arrival of the new Polo, Volkswagen has created five unique collections of NFTs and dropped them into the commercial to gamify the fan experience.

For five days (18 to 22 March 2022), Polo fans can hunt for the hidden NFTs in the commercial and stand a chance to win one of 100 NFTs. To play, consumers will need to solve the daily clues shared on Volkswagen’s social channels to guess the daily NFT. To stand a chance to win, consumers need to tweet a screenshot of the daily NFT from the ad to the Volkswagen Twitter page using #GameOnVW and #NewPolo hashtags. The first 20 correct fans will win one of the 100 NFTs to keep and collect or trade on the popular NFT trading platform, OpenSea.

Hidden in the Polo NFT collections are three rare Golden NFTs that will give their owners exclusive benefits allowing them to level up with a new PlayStation as well as Volkswagen Advanced Driving and GetSmarter courses.

With the Polo being locally manufactured and in the spirit of Volkswagen’s continued commitment to ‘Drive Local, Support Local’ the entire campaign, commercial and NFT Collections are all proudly locally created. Harnessing and showcasing local talent, the #GameOnVW campaign was conceptualised by local creative partners (Ogilvy Cape Town), produced by a local production company (Patriot Films) with the world-class animation and CGI (computer-generated imagery) developed by a South African company (Polycat). The commercial’s soundtrack was created for the ad by local musicians, Field, featuring local songstress, Moonchild Sanelly, with sound design created by local studio, Resonate.