Volkswagen Polo Challenge

Hamburg, Germany, 13 March 2009 – Shortly after the debut of the new Polo at the Geneva Motor Show on 03 March 2009, the matching racing game for the iPhone and iPod went live in the Apple AppStore. After just three days, Volkswagen Polo Challenge led the download charts in Germany and graced the categories ‘All Games’, ‘Arcade’, and ‘Racing Games’ with its game icon. In countries like Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech republic, Guatemala, Romania, Hungary, Israel, Thailand, Slovakia, Russia, Argentina, Japan, the UK and India, Volkswagen Polo Challenge also led the download charts, while in Spain, Poland, Ireland, Finland, and Turkey, the download numbers shot into the Top 5.

‘The new Polo has had a tremendous reception on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The evaluations by users are extremely positive and the number of downloads already far exceeds our expectations,’ says Markus Arand, Head of Newsroom, Volkswagen brand and product communications. ‘The feedback from the gaming press is also consistently positive. We are very pleased with the development and subsequent marketing by FISHLABS.’

‘Volkswagen has demonstrated exactly the right flair, integrating the new Polo into a game in an attractive, but not dominant, fashion through FISHLABS and then using our proven channels for viral communication,’ explains Michael Schade, CEO of FISHLABS Entertainment GmbH. ‘In the forums for iPhone and iPod Touch games, Volkswagen Polo Challenge is talked about as the best advergame in the AppStore and, according to comments by numerous players, even outdoes many retail games in terms of quality. Advergames like this are fun and also have the expected effect with target group: everyone is talking about the new Polo.’