Scion will launch a casual video game Monday on Facebook to unveil a limited-edition car scheduled to go on sale in December, Adrian Si, interactive marketing manager at Scion, tells Online Media Daily.

Those who want to play the casual video game will find the Facebook page for the "Special Release Series" live on Dec. 2. The game highlights performance features for the limited-edition car. It will let friends reach out and challenge game play. Si says the game will not offer the ability to custom-build the cars, because by now most people know that Scion offers that feature.

The game aims to augment a banner ad campaign that launched last week and will run through March. Supported by Interpolls and designed by the agency Optimedia, the rich media ad units will run on AOL, Autotrader.com, Cars.com, Edmunds, MSN, VERTual Media, IGN Entertainment, XLR8R, Jumpstart, KBB and HypeCircle. Si says a link in the ad units enables people to share the videos on their Facebook page.

The campaign, dubbed Manifesto, includes three expandable ads: 728 x 90, 300 x 250 and 728 x 90. The ads prompt consumers to chat with customer support specialists, find a dealer, or configure a car they might want to purchase. Peter Kim, president and CEO at Interpolls, says the ads allow consumers to watch videos of several cars in the one unit. The ad launches, and the consumer can select the video they want to watch.

The ad units support images and videos for three vehicles, along with a connection to Facebook. The Facebook connection aims to engage people and get them talking about the cars, according to Si. After all, click-through rates on banner ads have declined industrywide. He estimates that the industry average puts CTR at about .2%, flat or slightly declining. Scion has seen click-through rates between 4% and 7% on some ads, he says, depending on the creative ad unit.

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