1. Volkswagen India IMC -
Case Study
A Story about VW’s successful entry into India
- Siddharth Sriram,
MICA

2. VW India
Challenges –
• Volkswagen was a late entrant in the
already crowded Indian car market
• Well known European brands had a
difficulty in proving themselves in India
compared to the established Japanese,
Indian ones – questions about after-sales
service, toughness on Indian roads
remained
• Ad spends by competitors in this sector
were very high, how could VW hold its
own by resorting to lesser ad spends?

3. Campaign Objectives
• To increase awareness of the VW brand as
a mass premium player in India
• To maintain consistency & yet establish
uniqueness across the different brand
launches VW had planned for the various
segments over the year
• To drive VW‟s core brand identity that
globally stood for pioneering in innovation

4. ‘Talking’ Newspaper for VW Vento
• The readers of the Times of India in the five metros were
taken by surprise when their newspapers „talked‟ to them
about the Vento.
• This first ever advertising campaign of its kind in the world
was achieved using a mini device embedded with a
speaker, attached to the newspaper.
• Due to its uniqueness, this advertisement became the
talking point for a while and garnered great press and
social media coverage. -
VW Vento 'talking' newspaper campaign

5. Perfect Positioning - VW Beetle
• Instead of selling to men, targeted
successful and affluent women as
the buying audience.
• The New Beetle was launched as
a fashion icon and not as just
another car.
• Stylish and sexy positioning for
the car - “It‟s Official. Curves are
back.”
• OOH - At an important junction in Mumbai, an eight-section hoarding was
erected, with each panel showing a different section of the car. Panels were
initially covered up, but day by day a new panel was revealed until by the
eighth day, the Beetle could be seen in its glory

6. ‘Made in India’ - VW Polo
• Volkswagen aimed to employ the
„think global, acts local‟ communication
to drive home to point that it is „Made
in India‟
• Punched a Polo-shaped hole in each
copy of the newspaper. Inside the
hole‟ one could read about each of
the innovative India-appropriate
features
• Digital campaign - Used innovative
banner ads to take people on a virtual
tour of India, passing through famous
sites and clearly communicating
Polo‟s Indian-ness in an interesting
and innovative way.

7. Touareg – VW SUV Machine
• The Touareg is an SUV that dominates
the road and makes mincemeat out of
even 45 degree hills.
• OOH - A dummy Touareg was created
and attached to the outside of a
building, giving the impression that it
was climbing vertically. The innovative
approach intrigued passersby and
garnered widespread press.
• Digital media –
A rich media banner ad that unleashed
an animated Touareg which would then
descend through the text of the page
that is being read.

8. LinkedIn Recommendation
VW India participated in the worldwide launch of Company Pages in November
2010, and soon thereafter opened up their pages to allow LinkedIn members to
post reviews and recommendations of their car line in India including the New
Beetle, Vento, and Polo due to majority of their working class TG being present
here
Results
• 2,700 product recommendations in 30 days
• 2,300 new followers on VW India Company Page
• 960,000 viral updates about VW car models

9. Results
• VW‟s brand awareness jumped exponentially
since its launch.
• Within a year‟s time, Volkswagen came to be
known as a brand that makes innovative cars in
India
• In the period between 2009 to June 2010, it
sold record breaking cars, from the higher
priced Passat and Jetta models to the more
affordable Polo.
• All of this was achieved with minimal ad spends
with VW having only a total 9% share of voice
and leveraging word of mouth and efficient
positioning instead of out shouting competition