In the online world, views are worth money. An ad agency knows this better than anyone.

But only J.Walter Thompson Amsterdam realised it could turn that knowledge into a striking campaign. JWT and client, Opel, have turned views into a viable currency – currency that can buy an Opel car.

The campaign asks everyday people in the Netherlands to film their Opel test drive, upload it onto YouTube and promote their video as much as they can. The more views they get, the more expensive Opel model they can buy.

To work out the value of their view currency, JWT got together with YouTube to find out how many views equals a valuable level of exposure for the brand. The calculation is as follows: the price of the car model times 40. So YouTube view is worth €0,025.

Or 589.900 views buys the Opel Karl Rocks Online Edition. 739,600 views buys an Opel Corsa Online Edition and 922,800, an Opel Astra Online Edition.

The first person (in the world) to buy an Opel with views was Dutch Yuri Schuurkes. His film achieved 4.1m views, which he used to buy an Opel Astra.

Bas Korsten, creative partner, J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam, commented,

“We’re part of the oldest network in the world, but we’re always looking to the future, searching for ways to give the brands we work with an edge on their competition. In this case we’ve created a new digital currency, giving our client Opel a whole new way to sell their products.”

YouTube added (succinctly): “This is a world’s first.”