Chevy Cobalt Labs - the GM Advergame

by on 18 July, 2008 - 11:08

Chevy Cobalt Labs from General Motors looks pretty cool and strikes me as rather well executed. The experience takes you from modding your very own virtual Chevy Cobalt to racing it against other players. If that's your thing, then all the better but otherwise, there are still a few things that GM did well with this game so read on.

First off, let's have a look at the help section. Quote:

Question - You really gotta have my email address?

Answer - Yes, but we will not send you any communication via email unless you indicate that it is OK to do so. An email address is required to create a user account. Email addresses are used as logins because they are unique. Also, we require an email address for verifying account registration.

I like how that sounds. Because they reassure me they won't spam me with stuff I may not be interested in and because they say it in a normal tone. No speaking in corporate tongues here.

Then - the game lets me showcase my pimped up Chevy Cobalt. After all, if I took the time to mod it up, I'm gonna want to show it to my friends, right? The lesson here is - when doing advergames, remember that even the tiniest bit of custom media content the user can show off is way better than the classic highscore, which is just a dry number sitting in a database.

Then - I like how they tie it up with other things which might interest someone who's into tuning and such. Want info about real life chevy tuning? Click here. Want to find a dealer? Point: your advergame shouldn't exist in a bubble all by itself but it also shouldn't be a simple redirect page to your brand's big website. The key is balance.

All in all, while the game isn't really my cup of tea, I do like how they've pulled it off. Also thumbs up to Blockdot for putting the whole thing together.