From Adage article: http://adage.com/article?article_id=139862

Hoping that viral and PR will be enough, VW US are betting on an iPhone app to launch their new GTi.
The numbers quoted to make sense of the decision are as follows:

• Cost of 2006 launch the blitz approach $60 million
• Cost of the iPhone app $500 thousand plus the cost of cars that are being given away
• iphone users world wide 50 million
• highest rating TV show in US 21 million with a $130,000 cost for 30 sec spot
• more telling, GTi’s sold in first half of year 5,558 (57% down on last year)

The game is a reskinned version of Real Racing by Australian company Firemint. After downloading it a couple of things were worth noting. To start with, the game intro didn’t seemed to be reskinned with GTI cars which is a major loss considering first impressions. When you get into the game it’s great, as is the real version of Real Racing. You can choose between a 2 door and 4 door version of the GTI, both with different colours and some branding has been added to the track.

Other good qualities are the inclusion of networked competition (high scores some of which have videos of their game drive) and the reward of winning a real GTI for playing. People can also go to the show room where they can get specs, find a dealer and see interior and exterior pics. This is where you can find a link  to VW’s mobile site which continues the journey as well as opening up a view of the rest of the VW range.

To view the screen shot gallery click here: (more…)