THE DAY VOLKSWAGEN TOOK INDIA BY STORM

TitleTHE DAY VOLKSWAGEN TOOK INDIA BY STORM
BrandVOLKSWAGEN
Product / ServiceVOLKSWAGEN BRAND
CategoryA02. Best Use of Magazines/Newspapers
EntrantMEDIACOM COMMUNICATIONS INDIA Mumbai, INDIA
Entrant Company:MEDIACOM COMMUNICATIONS INDIA Mumbai, INDIA
Media Agency:MEDIACOM COMMUNICATIONS INDIA Mumbai, INDIA

Credits

Credits

Name Company Position
Ashwini Kamat Mediacom India General Manager
Girish Vyas Mediacom India Investment Director
Deepa Jatkar Mediacom India Senior Business Director
Yogesh Pawar Mediacom India Business Group Head
Padamaraj Krishnakutty Mediacom India Implementation Head
Sridhar Survey Mediacom India Implementation Manager
Aatika Ansari Mediacom India Business Executive

Results and Effectiveness

Cost of owning 28 pages=4 full-page ads, but delivered AMAZING value: • 11th November 2009:11am, Volkswagen was the HOTTEST SEARCHED WORD in India (Source: Google). • Huge PR value with media DISCUSSING the innovation; the most talked about topic (Source: Campaign, Brand Equity). • TOM increased from 8% to 32% in a DAR study conducted 1 week after the innovation (Source: IMRB). • 50% people recalled Volkswagen after 36 hours, as compared to11% for a brand that used a regular full page (Source: DNA Money quoting Universal McCann Study). • Sales immediately picked up leading to unprecedented bookings. (Source: Volkswagen).

Creative Execution

For the first time ever, India’s largest newspaper, The Times of India (TOI) had only 1 advertiser across all 28 pages – Volkswagen. On 11th November 2009, 6.8 million readers awoke to see only Volkswagen in TOI. The space was used creatively to talk about brand heritage, values, products etc. Our idea not only grabbed consumer attention, but also got his undivided mindspace. There were forums online that discussed the bold campaign, and we got incredible PR for the activity. And the buzz remained for days afterwards

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Volkswagen wanted to rule Indian roads. But Indians knew nothing about Volkswagen, not even how the name was pronounced. To deliver Volkswagen’s ambitious sales target, we had to quickly increase brand awareness from an abysmal 8%. Quite a challenge, considering competition had a TOMA of 90%. Given the male-oriented nature of the category, car manufacturers are among the most dominant advertisers in print. And everyday, newspapers carry 3-4 car ads. While we knew print was important for us to reach our target, we decided to defy convention. Instead of launching Volkswagen with regular large sized ads, we chose to be bold and different. Through aggressive negotiations with the leading English daily, we took over the ENTIRE newspaper, for just the cost of 4 full pages.