Chevrolet’s WhatsApp Racing Game Warns about the Dangers of Driving and Texting
Driving and texting on your cell phone are two things that do not go together: as we know, maximum attention is required when driving to avoid accidents. To bring more awareness on the subject during Yellow May - the international awareness month for reducing traffic accidents - Chevrolet created a pioneering action that helps to educate drivers in a fun way.
The initiative named Zap Racing is a game created within WhatsApp, which simulates a car race. To play, the audience uses emojis to dodge obstacles such as holes, pedestrians and vehicles, until reaching the second and final stage. The difficulty level increases from the first to the second stage and when the players get close to finishing the game, the car inevitably ends up colliding, highlighting the message that texting while driving never works in the end.
“We wanted to convey this message in an organic and playful way, which facilitates the absorption of the content. The goal is for people to always lose the game, regardless of their ability, so that we can interactively show the importance of keeping attention while driving, and never on the cell phone, while driving,” highlights Federico Wassermann, marketing manager for GM South America.
The game is accessed thanks to a chatbot on WhatsApp, developed especially for the project. Upon receiving the contact message, the user says 'hello' and then receives the first instructions to start playing. As the conversation takes place, the game develops in a grid of 9 columns by 12 lines, which are filled with obstacles.
The players can move the car by sending commands through the chat; the server responds with visual feedback of the updated position. When they manage to dodge all obstacles, the players advance a stage. In the last level, they will always crash and lose the game. At this point, an awareness message is displayed and the game ends.
The project was developed by Commonwealth//McCann – a division of WMcCann - for exclusive service to Chevrolet, with a digital strategy from Isobar and technological support for the development of the game from the agency MRM Brasil.
