That is what Volkswagen is doing. They now have a microsite that you can go to that asks questions on all sorts of things hoping to get visitors to answer them. Many of the questions are kind of light hearted -- “Do you want bloggers to shut up?” or “Do you want to live forever?” The host, so to speak, of the site is Max, the talking VW Classic Beetle that is appearing in a VW TV advertising campaign. The site is working in conjunction with a 3,685-square foot interactive billboard in New York’s Times Square. The billboard uses technology that allows a two-way conversation with passersby via their cell phone. The billboard is used to communicate poll questions that pedestrians can answer yes or no. After a poll question gets 1,000 responses the results are displayed through web banners using advanced keyword tagging to match up with relevant content of a website.
In short, VW is opening up a dialog with consumers. The campaign is causing consumers to not only spend time on the polling site or microsite but also to explore product pages to learn more about VW cars.