Scion Brings AR Game to TV and Cinema

Scion tC "Take On the Machine" from ATTIK on Vimeo.

Earlier this year, Scion launched a "Reinvent the Wheels" campaign, a six-episode, Web-only series aimed at putting a little pizzazz in the auto brand. The campaign was meant to highlight the versatility and easy personalization of Scion models.

Now the Toyota-owned brand is stepping further into off-the-beaten-path promotion. Starting this weekend, audiences of the number one film Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D and Monday Night Football's TV viewers will see the above :60 spot for Scion's latest digital campaign, Take On the Machine.

Helmed by Attik in San Francisco, this is no normal online game.

Using a coded virtual steering wheel printed on a sheet of paper that becomes a remote controller when recognized by a computer's webcam, users race through the "Machine" in a new Scion model tC. As racers improve their scores, they can upgrade cars.

Simon Needham, Attik's executive creative director says of the campaign, "In essence, our campaign presents 'the machine' as a menacing city, and it invites fans to get behind the wheel of a 2011 Scion tC to take it on." The game targets young, primarily male drivers. A game tutorial video (below) lays out the rather ground-breaking campaign.

The augmented reality utilized by Scion's Take on the Machine digital campaign has been tinkered with by advertisers before. Last year, Esquire magazine featured an augmented reality cover.

While the technology is certainly eye-popping and buzzworthy, AR remains so cutting edge that, as a brand-building tool, it may suffer a bit from being ahead of its time. As a pure sales driver, this technology probably is not going to produce hard results. But it certainly could work to build brand buzz around the right demographic.

Scion could use it, too. Sales numbers for August have been disappointing. Toyota, and the Scion brand in particular, could use a little cutting edge buzz right about now.