Volkswagen weaves a "silver' magic innovation for new Jetta

They got you the talking newspaper which created history, the first roadblock, an entire newspaper which went "Blue' as India won the Cricket World Cup. So as told to Adgully at the new 6th Generation Jetta's launch by Lutz Kothe, Head- Marketing & Public Relations, Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Group Sales, we did look forward to the 29th of August awaiting an innovation.

So on the much awaited date of 29th August, readers of The Times of India's Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bengaluru and The Hindu Chennai edition were delivered a shiny newspaper that was thicker than their regular paper. The headline read, 'Time for Volkswagen. Time for the all-new Jetta'. For Volkswagen, it's Das Innovation.

The shiny jacket with the respective daily's mast head for the all new Jetta was published in four editions of Times of India and in the Chennai edition of The Hindu.

Talking about the silver jacket innovation, Kothe tells Adgully, "The jacket connotes the USPs of the all-new Jetta. Silver is our communication colour and therefore the jacket is silver, a much thicker cover represents the quality of the car while the glitzy looks stands for the all new design of the new Jetta."

Kothe had also informed Adgully at the launch that going by the communication line- "The all new Jetta. You will do anything to drive it', the brand would run an extended media activation based on the "you will do anything to drive it' theme and which will be further strengthened by social media.

Adding to it, Kothe says, "With the new Jetta we will be doing a 360 degree communication with a very heavy focus on social media where we are running a twitter campaign called you will do anything to drive a Jetta which has already received an astounding response."

Talking to Adgully, Debraj Tripathy, COO, MediaCom India, tells Adgully that the paper for the print innovation was created much prior to the print innovation. "The agency partners, publication team and the client collaborated on the innovation and deliberated on execution for over three months. The innovation's basic essence was to convey the premiumness of the brand and the silver colour that customers can identify with the new Jetta," he adds.

The silver jacket was inserted separetly prior the distribution process and the silver glossy paper was chosen after much co-ordiantion.

However the innovation got mixed reactions across the social media, while some social media enthusiasts termed it as yet another path-breaking innovation, a few other were deeply disappointed as the expectation had reached an all new height from a brand that gave them the first talking newspaper. Tripathy says, "Both the innovations had two different brand needs to be met, the talking newspaper innovation was designed at a scale where the car which was an exclusive India model had to create the necessary buzz. While this time around we had to deliver Jetta's silver colour and the premiumness of the brand. Expectations are much appreciated but an innovation will always be planned around a communication objective."

The entire campaign was finalised much prior to the launch. Priced at Rs 14.12 lakh, Volkswagen unveiled the all-new Jetta in India and its first TVC for the new Jetta on August 17. | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]