We transformed Vodafone’s network stress test into an experience every Romanian wanted to witness.

We developed a live mobile game based on the country’s most remote and spectacular road: the Transfagarasan in the Carpathian Mountains.

For the game play, we teamed up with 8 times national rally champion Titi Aur and turned his real performance into the opponent’s performance in the game, live through the Vodafone network.

We promoted the game through an integrated campaign and made sure everyone was online for the live race.

From the road in the mountains, live on every phone, the real car’s parameters were sent and converted in real time in the game so that people could race against the performance of the actual rally car. The pilot’s coordinates stood as proof of network while anyone could experience its strengths by joining the mobile game regardless of their own operator.

We developed a live mobile game where a real car’s coordinates were converted in real time. For the game play, we teamed up with 8 times national rally champion Titi Aur and mapped the most remote road in the Carpathian Mountains as the rally circuit. The virtual car respected the real one’s unique features such as drifting capacity and aerodynamics so that the game matched exactly what was happening on the road during the live race.

We promoted the game through an integrated campaign and made sure everyone was online for the live race. The game reached over 150 thousands game downloads and a total of over 24 200 hours in-app time. It made it to the country’s biggest gaming events and was covered by the most popular TV tech show as well as the #1 driving show and national news.

• 157 725 downloads

• +24 200 hours total in-app time

• Vodafone surpassed its main competitor with 6 points and gained “best network performance” among non-users

• 14% growth in network performance perception

Vodafone wanted everyone, including the users of other mobile networks, to test its latest 4.5G speed so we transformed a stress test into an entertaining experience by bringing live streaming to mobile gaming.

We teamed-up with the country’s top rally pilot and streamed his performance in real-time to the mobile game, through the Vodafone network. From the most remote road in the Carpathians mountains, live on every phone, the car’s movement was instantly mapped in the game so that anyone in the country could race against the real performance of the actual rally car.

As one of the top three players in the Romanian mobile market, Vodafone wanted to target all digitalized individuals, aged 16-45, including those using other mobile networks by giving them something they could all engage with.

We needed to develop a network performance test relevant to everyone that would also bring a genuine brand experience. So we’ve turned to national identity, as one of our brand’s core values, to help us make a statement.

We used the most remote road in the Carpathians that every Romanian is proud of to put our network to a test in the toughest conditions and used real-time data to stream a real car’s driving parameters live into a mobile game.

Vodafone was the first mobile operator to introduce 4.5G speed in Romania and wanted to make it attractive to those using other mobile networks as well. Competition was stepping aggressively into two of the main differentiators of Vodafone: network performance & national identity. Every competitor in the market was bragging about a different kind of network certification they got and building a local footprint pillar through communication. Thus, Vodafone had to prove its network capabilities by tapping into local pride, only this time in the most credible way – by engaging consumers in real life.

We needed to develop an entertaining stress test for the network, that would demonstrate its power while offering a genuine brand experience for both customers and non-users, in order to increase network perception.