AWD*V70XC
11-11-2005, 02:25 AM
REMEMBER the Vin Diesel-Paul Walker racing movie "The Fast and the Furious"? A new racing video game for the Microsoft Xbox system, created on behalf of Volvo, might be billed The Safe and the Cautious.
The game, actually called Volvo Drive for Life, serves as a showcase for the Volvo nameplate, three Volvo models and the longtime Volvo brand identity as the car designed with safety foremost. Unlike most racing video games, which reward players for speed, Volvo Drive for Life encourages them to proceed judiciously by taking them through a training course at the Volvo proving grounds in Gothenburg, Sweden, before sending them out on famous highways to drive while avoiding accidents.
The Volvo video game, with an initial run of about 100,000 copies, also includes a virtual tour of the Volvo Safety Center and a "greatest hits" collection of film from actual crash tests. It is being distributed by Volvo Cars of North America to Volvo dealers across the country, who are being asked to set up Xbox systems and monitors in their showrooms for visitors to play Volvo Drive for Life.
Volvo Cars, a unit of the Ford Motor Company, is also giving the dealers copies of the game cartridges that they can give to prospective and current customers.
Volvo Drive for Life is an example of a growing trend known as advergaming, which brings together marketers and game makers in an effort to encourage consumers to spend time with advertising. That is a daunting challenge when it is easier than ever to zap, zip through or otherwise avoid ads.
The advergaming trend includes producing games that are played online or downloaded to a player's computer, like those for Life Savers candy and the Orbitz travel service, as well as those that are played on video game systems sold by Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.
For video games, advergaming can mean placing products and brands in the game environments, just as they are placed in scenes in movies or television shows; Volvo Cars did that with Xbox games in 2003 and 2004. It can also mean, as with Volvo Drive for Life, that a video game is created specifically for a marketer.
"Volvo has had for a long time a strategy of using new media," said John Neu, manager for customer relationship marketing and e-business at Volvo Cars in Irvine, Calif. He cited its pioneering efforts online like being "the first auto manufacturer to have its own Web site and to run banner ads," both in 1994, and, more recently, "the first automaker to sponsor a podcast, with Autoblog."
"Almost everyone knows what Volvo is and makes the association with safety, but we have less than a 0.7 percent market share in North America," Mr. Neu said. "Using new media in smart, effective ways makes our brand appear larger than our share of sales.
"We know people who play a video game spend 8 to 13 hours with it, so they get engaged with the brand" he added, "and they share it with friends and family members."
Volvo Cars, Microsoft and the others involved in the development of Volvo Drive for Life say they believe it is the most elaborate example to date of video game advergaming.
While Microsoft has produced Xbox video games for carmakers like Daimler Chrysler, said Bill Nielsen, director for the Xbox United States subsidiary at the Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Wash., "this is one more step beyond" because of the large number of copies being produced and the extensive customization of the contents of the game.
There is another difference with the Volvo video game, Mr. Nielsen said. "Most of our games are about driving fast," he said, laughing, "and not quite safely."
The Volvo video game features two Volvo sedans, the S40 and S60 R, and the XC90 V8 sport utility vehicle. The players first navigate the course at the proving grounds without using the safety features found in the three Volvos, then try again with the safety features engaged.
The intent is to demonstrate that "Volvo's dedication to safety is not just passive, seat belts and air bags, but what they call active safety features like roll stability control and how they improve the experience of driving," said Kirt Gunn, president of Kirt Gunn & Associates in New York. Gunn, a boutique interactive agency, designed the video game and developed the concept along with Euro RSCG 4D, part of the longtime Volvo Cars agency, Euro RSCG Worldwide in New York, owned by Havas.
To make the game-playing more realistic, Mr. Gunn said, he sent a game designer to Sweden for a week to incorporate "the experiences you actually go through, like the moose avoidance test."
After finishing at the proving grounds, the game players can drive the three models in the real world - or at least what passes for the real world within the Xbox realm. They can take the S40 on the Pacific Coast Highway in California; race the S60 R at the Italian Grand Prix near Monza, Italy; and drive the XC90 on the road to the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden.
Volvo Drive for Life was more than a year in the making, Mr. Gunn said. In addition to the work by Microsoft, Gunn and Euro RSCG 4D, a British company named Climax Studios, part of the Climax Group, handled the technical development. The game cartridge box features the logos of all four, along with the Dolby Digital logo, making it seem more like a DVD box.
The partners in the Volvo video game are making plans for next year. Mr. Neu of Volvo Cars said the game cartridges were to be distributed at auto shows to be held in cities like Detroit and Los Angeles as well as events like the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Mr. Gunn said the partners were also looking at giving away the video game through car rental companies, the Netflix DVD rental service and the Gamestop chain of video game stores.
Mr. Nielsen said Microsoft was already working with marketers on a few projects for its next-generation video game system, Xbox 360, which is to be introduced on Nov. 22. The new features on Xbox 360, like the improved graphics, "expand dramatically our ability to create advergames," he said.
The game, actually called Volvo Drive for Life, serves as a showcase for the Volvo nameplate, three Volvo models and the longtime Volvo brand identity as the car designed with safety foremost. Unlike most racing video games, which reward players for speed, Volvo Drive for Life encourages them to proceed judiciously by taking them through a training course at the Volvo proving grounds in Gothenburg, Sweden, before sending them out on famous highways to drive while avoiding accidents.
The Volvo video game, with an initial run of about 100,000 copies, also includes a virtual tour of the Volvo Safety Center and a "greatest hits" collection of film from actual crash tests. It is being distributed by Volvo Cars of North America to Volvo dealers across the country, who are being asked to set up Xbox systems and monitors in their showrooms for visitors to play Volvo Drive for Life.
Volvo Cars, a unit of the Ford Motor Company, is also giving the dealers copies of the game cartridges that they can give to prospective and current customers.
Volvo Drive for Life is an example of a growing trend known as advergaming, which brings together marketers and game makers in an effort to encourage consumers to spend time with advertising. That is a daunting challenge when it is easier than ever to zap, zip through or otherwise avoid ads.
The advergaming trend includes producing games that are played online or downloaded to a player's computer, like those for Life Savers candy and the Orbitz travel service, as well as those that are played on video game systems sold by Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.
For video games, advergaming can mean placing products and brands in the game environments, just as they are placed in scenes in movies or television shows; Volvo Cars did that with Xbox games in 2003 and 2004. It can also mean, as with Volvo Drive for Life, that a video game is created specifically for a marketer.
"Volvo has had for a long time a strategy of using new media," said John Neu, manager for customer relationship marketing and e-business at Volvo Cars in Irvine, Calif. He cited its pioneering efforts online like being "the first auto manufacturer to have its own Web site and to run banner ads," both in 1994, and, more recently, "the first automaker to sponsor a podcast, with Autoblog."
"Almost everyone knows what Volvo is and makes the association with safety, but we have less than a 0.7 percent market share in North America," Mr. Neu said. "Using new media in smart, effective ways makes our brand appear larger than our share of sales.
"We know people who play a video game spend 8 to 13 hours with it, so they get engaged with the brand" he added, "and they share it with friends and family members."
Volvo Cars, Microsoft and the others involved in the development of Volvo Drive for Life say they believe it is the most elaborate example to date of video game advergaming.
While Microsoft has produced Xbox video games for carmakers like Daimler Chrysler, said Bill Nielsen, director for the Xbox United States subsidiary at the Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Wash., "this is one more step beyond" because of the large number of copies being produced and the extensive customization of the contents of the game.
There is another difference with the Volvo video game, Mr. Nielsen said. "Most of our games are about driving fast," he said, laughing, "and not quite safely."
The Volvo video game features two Volvo sedans, the S40 and S60 R, and the XC90 V8 sport utility vehicle. The players first navigate the course at the proving grounds without using the safety features found in the three Volvos, then try again with the safety features engaged.
The intent is to demonstrate that "Volvo's dedication to safety is not just passive, seat belts and air bags, but what they call active safety features like roll stability control and how they improve the experience of driving," said Kirt Gunn, president of Kirt Gunn & Associates in New York. Gunn, a boutique interactive agency, designed the video game and developed the concept along with Euro RSCG 4D, part of the longtime Volvo Cars agency, Euro RSCG Worldwide in New York, owned by Havas.
To make the game-playing more realistic, Mr. Gunn said, he sent a game designer to Sweden for a week to incorporate "the experiences you actually go through, like the moose avoidance test."
After finishing at the proving grounds, the game players can drive the three models in the real world - or at least what passes for the real world within the Xbox realm. They can take the S40 on the Pacific Coast Highway in California; race the S60 R at the Italian Grand Prix near Monza, Italy; and drive the XC90 on the road to the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden.
Volvo Drive for Life was more than a year in the making, Mr. Gunn said. In addition to the work by Microsoft, Gunn and Euro RSCG 4D, a British company named Climax Studios, part of the Climax Group, handled the technical development. The game cartridge box features the logos of all four, along with the Dolby Digital logo, making it seem more like a DVD box.
The partners in the Volvo video game are making plans for next year. Mr. Neu of Volvo Cars said the game cartridges were to be distributed at auto shows to be held in cities like Detroit and Los Angeles as well as events like the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Mr. Gunn said the partners were also looking at giving away the video game through car rental companies, the Netflix DVD rental service and the Gamestop chain of video game stores.
Mr. Nielsen said Microsoft was already working with marketers on a few projects for its next-generation video game system, Xbox 360, which is to be introduced on Nov. 22. The new features on Xbox 360, like the improved graphics, "expand dramatically our ability to create advergames," he said.