VW creates new benchmarks in brand promotion
As The Times of India readers picked up Monday’s (8-3-2010)special edition, they could not possibly miss the pages cut out in the shape of a car. German car maker Volkswagen is leaving no stone unturned in its bid to make its presence felt in the country.To mark the beginning of the sales of its premium hatchback, Polo, that was launched last month, Volkswagen, staying true to its innovative promotions, cut out a portion in the top of every 16 pages of the special edition of the daily in the shape of the car.
A distinct feature of the car was detailed on the pages with every cut out. The last page featured a full page ad of the car with the final message: ‘We’ve put a lot into it. You’ll get even more out of it’, a tongue-in-cheek reference to both the features and the innovation.”We were looking to do something that would make people talk about us. Word of mouth publicity is one of the best kinds of promotion anyway,” Kothe, chief general manager, marketing and public relations, Volkswagen India said
If the innovation was aimed at getting people to talk, it sure achieved its purpose as discussions sparked off across social networking sites, either celebrating or dismissing the innovation.While the initial idea for the innovation came from Volkswagen, Kothe says that eventually, it was a team effort of the company, DDB Mudra and Mediacom, the creative and the media agencies, respectively.”The idea was to signal the start of sales and create the maximum impact. We wanted a simple way to break the clutter,” says Rajeev Raja, national creative director, DDB Mudra Group.
Speaking on the innovation, Divya Gururaj, managing director, Mediacom, says, “While competing brands such as Maruti and Tata have been around for years, Volkswagen is a rather new company in India. The challenge for the brand is to get noticed. That is why doing a half page print ad like most others would not do and such clutter breaking ideas are needed for the brand to be further established.”
The company also launched an innovative mechanical billboard with just the manufacturer’s logo on it and a small model car of the Beetle moving across the length and breadth of the ‘VW’ sign.When contacted, Volkswagen chose not to disclose the ad spends on these campaigns. But the company, which is the largest carmaker in Europe, is definitely taking the ‘highway’ to success by launching clutter-breaking, innovative campaigns.
In november,The Times of India has created a print roadblock for Volkswagen across its edition. The roadblock includes a spread of Volkswagen’s various brands Jetta, Passat and Touareg in the country. The print campaign looks at creating awareness about Volkswagen’s German technology and the company’s history.
On Christmas Eve, they launched a trailblazer in Mumbai, by deploying a helicopter to unfurl a 10,000 sq ft banner, which displayed the New Beetle and the manufacturer’s logo.The banner had a picture of the New Volkswagen Beetle in shiny red colour and the copy said, ‘The New Beetle from Volkswagen’. It was carried by the campaign helicopter, which took off from the Juhu Aerodrome, flying over Vile Parle, Bandra Kurla Complex, Worli Sea Link, Worli Sea Face, Warden Road, Marine Drive and Nariman Point, before returning to the Juhu Aerodrome.
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18 Responses to “VW creates new benchmarks in brand promotion”
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Great innovation. Gives a new dimension to print innovation. TOI was the first to start Jacket and now Jacket has become a standard advt option – not worth calling a innovation !!
I am sure we are going to see lot more of these in days to come however, this innovation requires investment in the printing machine facilities.
…but seriously, selling the front page of a newspaper for advertising and going beyond and punching a hole in it is sacrilege in publishing. One can’t argue with money, even if it at the cost of the reader! It’s the price one pays to get a subsidized newspaper! I’d rather pay Rs. 10 for my morning newspaper if it carried no / less advertising and more news.
people always try to point out the odds in a new innovation or cretivity. there a need of positive thinking in the favor of such an unmatched and superb creativity. For a premium brand like VW, which is new to India, it has followed amazing promotional strategies since its launch in Nov, 09. Starting from the eyecatching, simple, and soothing billboards to TOI cut campaigns, VW has left an unmatched impression on the TG. It has craeted a furor in Maruti and TATA dominated market that people started talking about the brand, even from non-metros and tier 2 cities through different mediums……
well…well…well. I guess it all depends on any individuals’s perceptions to hate or love something, but as just being an intelectual who likes to keep an eye, wat’s happening new in market, ‘ Its really a very crispy and entertaining feel to see such a nice presentation of product as well as in terms of innocvation among the cluttered automobile ads spreaded everywhere
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So just say this point of time…let the revolution continues and let the critics too.
Brilliant Thinking!!! The people behind this surely deserves the credit for doing such a fantastic job. The TOI who had taken the courage; congrats to all…!!!
purpose solved. People are talking about it.
An excellent effort to enter the Hatchback Segment with a bang, perfect execution of ROAD BLOCKING. They surely know the tricks of the trade, with like of Maruti & Tata holding nearly 80% of the market & being a luxury brand it is esential to be noticed among Upper Middle Class Families..
nice work i had seen their outdoor publicity covering whole volvo bus with car of volkswagen that was very creative.
Great!!!TOI defently has the courage to create holes in all the 35 LAc copies and also generate the right kind of response for the brand like VW.
a brand like VW doesnt have to go to such lengths to get noticed. I suppose the creative team just got to it the easy way but what use? The image association with an iconic brand just got badly hit.
People noticed that TOI earned a lot through it…whether it is going to create the drive to buy Polo is going to be seen…..but so much money for one media………in one day…..it doesn’t seem so impressive….
So after the Print roadblock this is the 2nd Innovation from VW. Good work. Infact when I saw the Paper in the morning I thought My Son did the cutting. Whatever may be the case , you like it or hate it, the experiment got noticed that’s for sure.Doing a hole in 10 lac copies is not a easy task and that also printing a 12 page pullout to accompany this, is also challenging. I don’t know what will be the outcome but TOI earned a fortune from VW. Chalo its good, there are still people who think out of the Hole ooops Box.
Sheer Waste of Money!!!!!!!!!
A brand like Volkswagen does not need such cheap tricks to make noise. The brand name itself is enough for the car buyers or lovers to make a note of it in their head.s Wake up Volkswagen. Wake up. You know what that logo means to people.
Guys,the single objective was to create “BUZZ”in the market.
Insight :-any normal person when he gets up he ask for news paper and they wanted to reach them face to face to create BUZZ and they have used right medium.
Message:- The best you can get it (An optimal blend of design, comfort and functionality)
Messenger :-TOI NEWS Paper
Medium:- Print Media…Not at all a waste of money:-)
It was a fantastic idea…….a very very innovative campaign, nobody could have missed this initiative….Every students in our college was discussing about the cut-out in the shape of the car.No one remembered the news in the first page but the ad was remembered by everyone.
.gimmicky? yes. talked about? yes. does it work? YES, yes, yes. isnt that what all good advertising is all about? ….Polo= the CAR wit the HOLE. ..bt isn’t POLO (the mint) also handled by the same ad agency?
it’s the simple way to break the clutter..but might have costed VW 6-10 crores in a single day