HT makes history to communicate VW Phaeton's hand crafted message

Ferdinand PiÃƒ«ch - former chairman of Volkswagen Group. This was the man who'd announced, when VW took control of Bugatti, that they'll be making a car capable of 400 km/h and would have power rating of 1000bhp. A thousand! The entire world of motoring experts went home laughing. But in 2004, the world saw its most radically engineered super-hyper car of all time ' the Veyron. The rest, as they say, is history.

Now imagine what would happen when the same chap thinks at taking the established players at the premium luxury end of the auto segment head-on. The idea was simple ' PiÃƒ«ch wanted VW to create a car that would overwhelmingly surpass arch rivals Mercedes-Benz and BMW. The result? Volkswagen Phaeton.

It is a gentlemanly looking car and not something that shouts about its arrival. So, what you get is a car with discreet exterior so that you don't get noticed to an extent of getting ransom calls but equipped with all the bells and whistles you'll ever need from a car. This car reeks of handcrafted luxury.

And now, VW is introducing the Phaeton to the Indian people in a luxurious yet discreet way ' typical VW, I'd say.

VW and Hindustan Times have joined hands to make history by bringing forth a clutter-breaking print media innovation for Volkswagen Phaeton.

All the headlines in HT were changed to handwritten font ' a concept created for the first time in the history of print media ' to match the USP of VW Phaeton, that of handcrafted luxury.

The jacket pages, too, didn't do the regular loud and shouty promotion of the car. In fact, there wasn't even a photograph of the car! All that the promotion contained were a couple of statements.

"Anything that's specially crafted by hand¦

¦ always makes the headlines."

That's what truly bowled me away ' the fact that there was not even a single element of loud and flashy, the fact that it was discreet yet powerful, and the fact that it was immensely impactful and explanatory to define the Volkswagen Phaeton as a product in a nutshell.

Interestingly, the print media has been losing ground gradually over the past few years. With the advent of internet and mobile technologies, and television ruling the roost, print media ' forgive me for saying this ' is getting neglected. Surveys suggest that readership is falling so the publications need to scratch their heads and get cracking with radical ideas that would capture the imagination of a consumer. And I am not talking about softly touching you and requesting for your attention. No. what I am talking about is ideas that would grab you by the scruff of your neck and force you to ogle at them.

There is a desperate need for innovations. This VW-HT activity stands as a prime case in point. Times of India too carried out an activity with Uninor recently wherein the letter "T' was integrated with Uninor's logo. This spanned the first two pages of TOI!

Speaking of innovation, and getting back to VW-HT brilliance, Salil Sadanandan Business Head, West and South at HT Media sad, "The innovation is unique and is extremely relevant highlighting the USP of the car. We wanted to bring out the element of Bespoke Luxury which personifies the car through a unique innovation. The fonts of the News headlines were changed to resemble a handwritten script, in sync with the brand proposition of Handcrafted Luxury. It was a pleasure to work with a client like VW, who appreciates and encourages clutter breaking innovations."

In an effort to gauge the acceptance of such an innovation, Adgully reached out to media specialists and was pleased to find out that the industry professionals are quite upbeat about this branding innovation and there was a general feel-good factor floating in the market. We spoke to a few consumers as well and were informed that the VW-HT activity was prominent and noticeable and the brand recall was very high.

All we can say is, VW Phaeton is truly a product that'll make headlines wherever it goes. And with this innovation in collaboration with Hindustan Times, a start has already been made. Respect.