The car manufacturer is targeting China’s 100 million-strong blog community with the ‘Honk for China’ campaign. Created by Tribal DDB Shanghai, the viral is designed to give Torch Relay bloggers a way to show their support for the Games.
Netizens who write about the relay coming through their town can link their posts with the FAW-VW’s official torch map website. They then receive a ‘honking badge’ that they can attach to their blogs.
The badge allows the blogger to compose a tune based on the horns of different FAW-VW models.
Visitors to the blog can ‘honk’ the horn to play the tune; each time this happens, a counter on the blog goes up.
The users with highest counts win prizes including trips to Beijing to see the opening and closing ceremonies and a one-year car lease.
The activity has been designed to run with minimal media support.
A banner ad will appear on Sina’s blog homepage, and this banner will show the highest-ranked blogger.
It is the latest user-generated online drive capitalising on enthusiasm for the games. “Bloggers are China’s most powerful online community,” said Dirk Eschenbacher, executive creative director at Tribal DDB. “If you can win them over, then your campaign can engage the audience on a much more realistic, truthful and relevant level.”
FAW-VW is the automotive partner of the Games and one of the official sponsors of the China leg of the Torch Relay.
It is providing more than 1,000 vehicles for the convoy following the torch, which will pass through China for 97 days prior to the Games.
