It may be World Cup fever that's stalking the nation but at Volkswagen India, the excitement is about IPL, scheduled to start April 8.
Volkswagen, the exclusive sponsor in the automobile category, will launch a “special action model” at the start of the T20 tournament, said Mr Lutz Kothe, Head of Marketing and PR, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Group Sales India Pvt Ltd. Asked whether an existing model would be tweaked for the tournament, he said, “It won't be tweaked, it will be specially constructed.”
Mr Kothe told
As the IPL is a very, very big platform, other models too would be promoted, Mr Kothe said. There would be car exhibitions, promotions and branding within the stadium. Shuttle services for the umpires, VIPs and IPL board members would run on VW cars. According to Mr Kothe, the interest in the IPL is higher than in the World Cup - the bonding with the teams is deeper because “they're one of us”. Elaborating, he said the IPL is an Indian enterprise and that Indian cricketers were in all the teams, which is different from a national team.
On the impact of the ‘talking newspaper' ad for Vento in September 2010, Mr Kothe said it had brought them a lot of brand awareness. Brand awareness at the end of 2009 in India was just eight per cent but within a year, it had climbed to 39 per cent, he said.