Volvo is upping the ante with its tie-in to Walt Disney’s highly anticipated movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”, offering a global treasure hunt for chance at a new XC90 and a treasure chest full of gold.
Only this time, fans won’t be digging for a Volvo SUV—they’ll be swimming for it. Volvo has buried the keys to a ‘Pirates”-branded SUV and $50,000 worth of gold doubloons somewhere at the bottom of the ocean.
The online promotion is Volvo’s second linked to the “Pirates” franchise. The effort is similar to last year’s campaign, under which Volvo buried a “Pirates”-branded SUV on the island of the Bahamas for treasure hunters to find. The sweepstakes drew 52,000 players in the U.S. alone.
New this year, Volvo has extended the promotion, which begins May 4, from five counties to 22. The campaign gives players a series of online puzzles to solve the hunt.
“This year, the search is definitely more challenging,” said Linda Gangeri, national advertising manager, Volvo Cars of North America. “There will be four weeks of online, high seas adventure, which will be more fascinating, even more engaging than last year.”
As of Friday, more than 18,000 people had already registered for the promotion, handled by Euro RSCG, at VolvoCars.us/TheHuntSignUp, Gangeri said.
“Already, the blog environment is going crazy,” she said.
A blog helped fuel a teaser campaign in March.
To play, fans register and complete each puzzle to move on in the hunt. At the end of the fourth puzzle, Volvo will send players to local dealerships to pick up a “Pirates” chart and secret code to complete the remaining 17 puzzles. Each chart contains longitude and latitude lines, which hunters will use to solve future clues.
The move lets consumers engage with the game first and offers dealers a unique way to draw people in to showrooms, Gangeri said. In its first campaign, Volvo offered a treasure map at the start of the online game.
An incentive is imbedded in the game play experience.
Consumers can earn up to 500 points or $500 during the hunt to use toward a Volvo vehicle. Last year, Volvo offered a $500 incentive at the end of the hunt toward a new car. Of the 52,000 U.S. players, 125 people redeemed the offer, Gangeri said.
‘We want to give them a reason up front to get more engaged in the product,” Gangeri said. “It depends on skill and it’s another fun element this year, if they are in market for a car.”
The online game runs through May, when finalists, one in each country, will be chosen. They will face off June 2 in a time-based physical challenge.
To support the promotion, Volvo dealers have “piratized their showrooms,” Gangeri said. Each received a P-O-P kit with window posters and signage to hype up the online game. Temporary tattoos will be handed out with the maps and the “Pirates” trailer will run continuously to further entice customers.
Print ads in “People” and “Entertainment Weekly” support the campaign, as well as online media buys at EW.com. “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” hits theaters May 25.
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