Balloon World Cup: Volkswagen ID.3 Electric Vehicle Represented at the World Final
The Balloon World Cup is an intense game of living room acrobatics involving, you guessed it, balloons. What exactly does the Volkswagen ID.3 electric vehicle have to do with the Balloon World Cup? Nothing, really, but the Volkswagen ID.3 took center stage during the intense competition.
The Volkswagen ID.3 stole the show at the Balloon World Cup
The Balloon World Cup is a serious sport! Just kidding, but it is a real thing. According to ESPN, Barcelona and Spain defender Gerard Pique and Ibai Llanos helped organize the Balloon World Cup. ESPN and Twitch streamed the intense inaugural game live from Tarragona, Spain, at the World Final for the Balloon World Cup.
The original Keep-Up Balloon League consisted of three brothers from Oregon. Antonio (age 21) and Diego Arredondo (age 18), and their younger sister Isabel (age 15) made the news earlier this year when the balloon league went viral. Many people have probably played this game at home before it became a real sport.
What was the Volkswagen ID.3 at the Balloon World Cup? Utilizing a new type of marketing opportunity, of course. The game was highly publicized, and the strategically placed Volkswagen ID.3 in the frame for all the players to use.
The Volkswagen ID.3 electric vehicle prop was a good idea
There wasn’t much in the way of a stage for the World Final event. There are some tables, chairs, couches, and then a random Volkswagen ID.3. However, this was quite an exciting marketing opportunity for VW. The ID.3 is a popular small car in Europe, where the finals took place. The competition consisted of 32 teams from different countries competing against one another.
“The rules are simple — players must hit the balloon once and in an upward direction and points are scored when an opponent is unable to prevent the balloon from touching the ground — and the game makes for compelling viewing.”
ESPN
There also appears to be some branding from Mentos, Doritos, and Yoigo, a telephone and internet company in Spain. However, the ID.3 electric vehicle was a lot larger than the other ads. Players were bumping into it, jumping around it, and using the electric car to keep the balloon off the ground. There wasn’t much of a point to having it there besides advertising. However, you couldn’t do this with an internal combustion engine (ICE), could you? The Volkswagen ID.3 is a fully electric vehicle that doesn’t emit fumes like a gasoline-powered vehicle, so it was safe to use in the confined space.
What’s not to love about balloons and EVs?
Francesco de la Cruz from Peru was crowned the first World Balloon Champion of the competition. In the captions for the video, the announcer notes that the court was “littered with living room furniture and a small car.” The small car has an impressive range of 340 miles.
According to a tweet by Volkswagen España, the official page for the brand in Spain, the company asked about the idea last week. It looks like the EV was already in place at that time, but it’s still funny. The audience for the Balloon World Cup saw an average of about 500,000 viewers on Twitch.
Since introducing the Volkswagen ID.3, the brand has sold almost 150,000 units in the European market. It seems like this brand partnership was a match made in heaven, like balloons and professional sports.
