The archive · Games & Play · Product decision · 2025–2026
A Karoo wire-car race becomes a film, a game and a store — 3 One Show Golds
Accenture Song turned Philipstown's wire-car race into a Prime Video documentary, a digital-twin game and a store that funds youth education.
Philipstown WireCar Foundation · Accenture Song
What it had to solve
For 15 years, children in Philipstown, Karoo, have hand-built wire cars (draadkars) from scrap metal and raced 3km through town — a beloved local tradition with no way to reach the world or fund the community.
How it works
Every September, children in Philipstown, a small town in South Africa's Karoo, hand-build draadkars from scrap wire, bottle caps and tin cans, then race them 3km over rocky terrain in the annual WireCar Grand Prix — the only race of its kind in the world. For 15 years it was a purely local event.
Accenture Song and the newly formed Philipstown WireCar Foundation turned the tradition into a multi-channel experience: a 75-minute documentary directed by Paul Ward (streaming on Prime Video, with F1 commentator Alex Jacques narrating and Siya Kolisi appearing), a free-to-play mobile game that recreates Philipstown as a digital twin from 360-degree footage, LiDAR scans and real GPS race data — with a stamina mechanic that simulates the effort of pushing a wire car — and an e-commerce store selling the artisans' original cars.
In-app purchases were deliberately cosmetic-only, and every purchase, stream and sale channels funds into the foundation's youth programmes, including a community hub and e-learning centre. The campaign raised over $600,000 in pledges and swept the awards season, winning three One Show 2026 Gold Pencils, a Cannes Silver and Bronze Lion plus Titanium shortlist, a Tribeca X award and a Webby for Best Documentary Storytelling.
Why it lands
- It preserved a real place and real people: the game is a faithful digital twin of Philipstown, so the product itself carried the story's authenticity.
- It created three self-reinforcing revenue surfaces — stream, play, buy — all feeding one measurable social outcome.
- The game's standout mechanic (racing the kids' actual GPS data) turned the documentary audience into participants.
- It gave the community ownership of the IP, with the foundation — not the agency or a brand — at the centre.
What it did
More than $600,000 was pledged to the Philipstown WireCar Foundation, funding a community hub and e-learning centre; the work won three One Show 2026 Gold Pencils, a Cannes Silver and Bronze Lion, a Tribeca X win and a Webby.
What you can take
A local tradition becomes a global product when you digitize it faithfully: the game's magic was that it was the real town and the real race, not a fictionalized version.
Since then
The documentary debuted on Prime Video in October 2025 and quickly carried Philipstown onto global screens; the foundation bought a building in town and began converting it into a community hub and e-learning centre offering computer skills, robotics training and driver's licence programmes. The campaign's awards run continued into 2026, with One Show Gold Pencils in Gaming for Good and Branded Entertainment for Good, Cannes Lions recognition, and a Clio Bronze, cementing the project as a reference point for community-owned branded entertainment.
Sources
- Philipstown WireCar Grand Prix goes global with Accenture
- The Philipstown WireCar Grand Prix Mobile Game — From Karoo Dust to Digital Twin
- Tiny Karoo Town Becomes Global Sensation With WireCar Grand Prix
- Accenture Song SA Turns Local Stories Into Global Creative Currency
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