INFINITI Arcade Game

Context.

INFINITI Motor Co. was on the cusp of its 30th birthday in late 2019. With exciting new models in the pipeline, the future was looking bright for the Japanese OEM. That said, the brand was also grappling with an awareness problem—especially when it came to its rich heritage of innovation.

The average consumer wouldn’t know it, but since its inception, INFINITI had introduced a number of safety innovations to the industry. These World’s First Technologies (WFTs) included features like the now-ubiquitous Blind Spot Warning. At Critical Mass Toronto, it was clear that our client, INFINITI Canada, could stand to make a bigger deal out of their WFTs—to better position themselves as a trail-blazer among Canadian consumers.

Opportunity.

The auto show was just around the corner. Our client wanted to celebrate their 30th anniversary with a head-turning activation at their booth. For us, this was an opportunity to shine a light on their World’s First Technologies; to educate consumers on the brand’s 30-year track record of innovation while generating some buzz.

Insight.

Consumers are more likely to buy into a brand with an impressive history. And the auto show’s baked-in nostalgia factor means attendees are more open to hearing about INFINITI’s timeline of innovations.

Idea.

We tapped into nostalgia with an auto show activation people couldn’t ignore: a retro arcade game at the INFINITI booth. Since the brand was born in 1989, we could play with classic ‘80s tropes people love to see.

The object of the game? Race through four timed courses, collecting INFINITI World’s First Technologies. Each WFT was depicted as a spinning gold coin, donning the INFINITI badge. As you collected them, the game UI served up light feature info, to boost brand awareness without detracting from gameplay.

As you forged ahead, there were Easter eggs galore. We even added playful “meta” INFINITI billboards that referenced our retro game format with a wink and a nudge: Luxury Isn’t a Game; The Next Level of Luxury; Luxury Doesn’t Hit Pause, and more.

Once you beat the game, you’d see a tally of every WFT collected or missed, reinforcing product awareness. Next, we encouraged you to enter a contest on INFINITI.ca via QR code—a simple way of capturing leads.

Beyond the auto show, we made our game available on INFINITI.ca, with social posts driving to the website experience. We called this idea World’s First Arcade, and named the video game INFINITI Fast Forward.