Volkswagen Malaysia plays cupid to its consumers this Valentine's Day

Automobile manufacturer Volkswagen Malaysia has launched its social media campaign "Score a Fling", hoping to match its consumers to the car of their choice.

Inspired by the dating app Tinder, the campaign comes in the form of an additional feature to its website where consumers can view a range of its cars and decide if they want to "match" with the car. The cars come with various personified descriptions that exhibit different traits, as one sees on dating apps. The Beetle model is described to have an attitude, Polo model is "looking for someone to have fun with", and the more family-friendly Tiguan model is described to "love children".

Once matched, consumers will be met with a chatbot which will ask for a pick-up line and arrange a "rendezvous" for a test drive at one of its physical store. The feature doubles up as a social media contest as participants who complete the test drive will stand a chance to win a hotel stay. Volkswagen Malaysia is said to reveal the winner in March via its social platforms.

In addition to the social media contest, Volkswagen Malaysia will also offer overnight test drives for those interested during the campaign period. The campaign will run from now until 29 February 2020. Isabela Pascu, head of marketing, Volkswagen passenger cars Malaysia, told A+M the idea for the campaign came from its lead agency BnBC Advertising, and is executed and supported by PHD Media (digital and media), Industria (social), while the public relations duties are handled in-house. Pascu added that this campaign is fully online one that is best suited for mobile viewing. Volkswagen Malaysia will also be running ads on out-of-home (OOH) media around Klang Valley.

Additionally, the data collected will be passed to Volkswagen Malaysia's dealers who will then reach out to the potential buyers to arrange for a test drive. Pascu also said its main objective of the campaign is to drive traffic to its showrooms and getting more people to take its cars for test drives. The microsite is a new way for the automobile company to interact and engage with Malaysians, according to her.

Last year, Volkswagen Malaysia also offered a different web experience for its consumers. Jumping onto the hype of popular TV series Game of Thrones, the company launched a Game of Thrones-inspired microsite, developing its very own version of the Seven Kingdoms with nicknames for its car model line up, namely Night Beetle, GTI-Rell, Pas-Stark, Khal-Polo, R-Linenister, Tiguaryen, and Venjoy. On “the seven experience” microsite, each car is accompanied by a write-up summarising its “right to rule” and “noble traits” as well as what it says about the “master of the ride.”

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