Rachit Vats
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Volkswagen drives in with Mudra DDB

The much awaited Volkswagen entry in India is finally official. The German auto major has appointed Mudra as its creative agency

Germany’s auto major Volkswagen has entered the India market with its first model, Passat, and the company has hired Mudra DDB to handle the creative duties for the car brand. Globally, DDB is in charge of the Volkswagen, so Mudra DDB was an obvious choice here in India.

However, Mudra DDB had to go through multiple rounds of presentations to finally bag this account.

Bobby Pawar, national creative director, Mudra, says, “Volkswagen has just launched the Passat and it has other big plans for India. They are planning to launch cars here in India to suit every pocket.”

Volkswagen drives in with Mudra DDB
Bobby Pawar
Mudra’s mandate for Volkswagen is very clear: Besides introducing the Passat, it must create awareness about the Volkswagen brand. Says Pawar, “The brief for us was to establish the spirit and philosophy of Volkswagen, make people believe that there’s a certain way of life at Volkswagen.”

Comparing Volkswagen with other international brands such as Mercedes Benz and BMW, Pawar says, “Merc is about glamour and BMW is about performance, but Volkswagen will stand as the mark of German technology.”

“To add to it, the Passat outperforms the Mercedes C class,” says Pawar.

The launch campaign for the Passat broke in the print media just last week. The media plan includes below-the-line activities and the aggressive use of the print media.

Volkswagen sees SEC A & A1 (males, 25 yrs +), residing in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, as buyers for its cars, starting with those who can afford a Swift or a Getz (Rs 5 lakh) and going up to those with the might to buy a Mercedes (Rs 30 lakh).

The annual advertising budget for Volkswagen is still being worked out. The spend for the Passat is not very high and cannot be used as an indicator for the entire account. Pawar declined to comment on the size of the business, though he termed it as substantial.

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